LAHORE, March 3: Seven members of two families were found dead under mysterious circumstances in separate incidents here on Tuesday and Wednesday. The family of Naib Qasid Raja Khalil was found slaughtered at his two-room house on the third floor of a building at Pari Mehal inside the Mochi Gate, on Tuesday.

Among the dead were his wife, schoolteacher Kishwar Naheed (40), daughter Javeria, a 21-year-old college student, and school-going sons Zainul Abideen (15) and Zille Abbas (12).

"The motive is yet to be ascertained," SP Rao Karim said, adding that evidence had been collected from the scene of crime. Mr Khalil told reporters he had left for his native town Gujrat three days ago. He said he made several phone calls which nobody attended.

Worried, he rushed back to Lahore only to find the house locked from outside. He scaled over the boundary wall to enter the house. "The place had been ransacked and the bodies were lying in the two rooms with blood splattered everywhere."

He ran downstairs and called in the police who removed the bodies to the mortuary. The SP said the police did not find a weapon or any other clue from the scene that could help investigations.

A police source said the Naib Qasid had been taken into custody. In the other incident, a man, his wife and mother were found dead in their car, which was parked inside their rented house at Nayab Housing Society on Ghazi Road in South Cantonment.

The police said the bodies of Dr Farrukh Haroon (43), his wife Maria (35) and mother Iffat Haroon (65) were sent to the mortuary. "The exhaust of the car, diverted into the vehicle through a rubber-pipe, apparently chocked them to death," said SP Dr Usman Anwar.

The SP said suicide notes of Mr Farrukh and his wife were also recovered from the car, which said the family had decided to commit suicide due to financial constraints and a heavy debt.

A police source said the hand-writing was same in both the letters. He said the letters had also been signed by the deceased. The police said the man had recently moved to the rented house while his own house was in a rich neighbourhood of Zaman Park. Litigation over ownership of the house was under way, they said. The police registered a murder case with no arrest.