HYDERABAD, Jan 17: The Market police on Sunday night detained 17-year-old girl Safia, step-daughter of a policeman whose second wife, Naseem, and her four children were found murdered in their house in Sarfaraz Colony on Sunday morning.

The court of the judicial magistrate-11 has remanded the girl in police custody for two days. Police have lodged a case on the complaint of the policeman, Saindad Kalhoro, under sections 302 and 337-J, on the basis of information provided by Safia.

According to Safia, Mr Saindad said, his wife, Naseem, 37, told her that because of abject poverty and family disputes, she would kill her children and commit suicide. "The mother first killed Bahar Ali then Asia, Fozia and Ghulam Mustafa", Mr Saindad quoted Safia as telling him.

Preliminary investigations by police revealed that the woman killed her four children after giving them heavy doses of some intoxicant and then forced Safia to kill her otherwise she herself would be murdered like the other children.

The TPO investigation, Younus Chandio, and the TPO, City, Khurram Shahzad, told journalists that the knife used in the offence had been found near the house. They said Safia's blood stained clothes which she had changed before leaving the house had also been recovered.