LAHORE, Jan 12: Four people are being questioned in connection with the murder of the parents of Justice Javed Iqbal, a senior judge of the Supreme Court, in their house here on Tuesday night. Their fingerprints and DNA samples have been sent by investigators to experts.

The National Database and Registration Authority will find out if the fingerprints of the four detained persons, a housemaid, a security guard or two women tenants who lived in the upper storey of the house, matched with those found at the crime scene.

A robbery case has been registered under Sections 302 and 392 of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of Saeed Iqbal, brother of Justice Javed. According to the FIR, two gold bangles, an earring and Rs150,000 cash were robbed from the house.

The deceased, Malik Abdul Hameed and Zarina Bibi, were laid to rest in the Ghalib Market graveyard on Wednesday.

A police officer said the couple had gone to a market in the morning and they might have been followed by the robbers. The culprits might have entered the house either by scaling the wall or by holding the couple hostage and killed them when they offered resistance.

Cantonment (Investigation) SP Syed Amin Bukhari said police had recorded the statement of the maid, Farzana Bibi.

She told the investigators that she went to the house daily at 9am and left at around 12 noon. On Tuesday, after doing her work she left the house as usual and went to work in another house. Police also questioned people in some of the other houses where she worked.

The SP said investigators had questioned the four people, but made no breakthrough in the case.

According to the initial post-mortem report, Malik Hameed and Zarina Bibi were strangulated. Some minor bruises suggest that the elderly couple resisted the robbers who used pillows to smother them.

Citing the report, a police officer said there were marks of an injury on the lips of Malik Hameed and ribs of Zarina Bibi were fractured.

He said specimens from the bodies had been sent for chemical examination and a report was expected in a couple of weeks.

Late in the night, the SP briefed the Punjab police chief on the investigation and some leads that might help trace the killers.