LAHORE, Nov 15: The Punjab governor has directed the Lahore CIA to re-investigate the killings of seven people in Faisal Town last year, it is learnt.

Expatriate Ammanullah Khan, his wife, his married daughter, her minor daughter, a servant, his wife and his teenaged daughter were found hammered to death in a Faisal Town house in October last year.

Several police teams, other law enforcing agencies and experts from the army could not resolve the mystery despite months-long investigation and the case file was closed.

Police sources told Dawn that the decision to reopen the case was taken during a meeting presided over by Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool. “The meeting discussed in detail all major cases which could not be resolved, besides reviewing the law and order situation.”

The sources said the Faisal Town massacre was put atop the priority list of the major cases remained clueless. The CIA was directed to reinvestigate it.

When contacted, CIA SP Aslam Sahi said the case was being re-investigated. “We have to recollect all evidences which is a difficult process. However, the preserved evidences will help a lot to solve the mystery,” he said.

The SP said there were six beneficiaries of the movable and immovable property, worth millions of rupees, of Ammanullah after his death.

“One of them is a retired DIG, another is an officer of an intelligence agency while others are close relatives of the family head. We decided to include all the beneficiaries in the investigation and recorded their initial statements.

“Money seems to be the only motive behind the killings. The evidences gathered so far suggest that Ammanullah was also involved in illegal business of money laundering and had two partners.

A partner, who is a resident of Lahore, had in a letter threatened Ammanullah with dire consequences without mentioning any reason some days before the incident. At present, Ali Muhammad Jaras is running his business in the UAE and Hong Kong. He and his family had been asked to join the investigation,” the SP said.

He said autopsy reports of the victims suggested that they all were hammered to death. No firearm or knife was used, he claimed.

Meanwhile, no clue could be found to the killers of a trader who was the cousin of TJP’s Punjab deputy general secretary Tauqeer Baba.

Four armed men had shot dead Nusrat, 52, outside his house in Officers Colony of the North Cantonment a couple of days ago.

The TJP leader had labelled the killing as sectarian.

Cantonment police SP Dr Usman said sectarianism was atop the probable motives behind the killing. According to the autopsy report, Nusrat had sustained three bullets in his back, he said.