LAHORE: In what appears to be an act of extreme cruelty, a couple allegedly murdered their two minor children in E-1 Block of Johar Town early on Wednesday.

Domestic brawls and financial crunch are said to be reasons behind the gruesome act the couple resorted to.

Police took both Sunny Khan and his wife Bisma (23) into custody and registered a murder case against them on the complaint of suspect’s brother Abuzar Salman Khan.

The couple lived in a joint family in a one-kanal double-storey house where a crowd gathered after the news of the double murder spread.

In the FIR lodged under Sections 302 and 34 of Pakistan Penal Code, the complainant (Salman) stated that he along with his two guests (cousins) was asleep in a room of the house. They woke up after hearing screams form Sunny’s room around 5.30am. They rushed to the room.

“We entered the room to find Sunny and his wife Bisma crying, while their two-year-old daughter Manahil was lying on the floor and eight-month-old son Muhammad Yousaf on bed.

“Upon asking as to what happened, Bisma remained silent but Sunny said his wife killed Manahil by drowning her in the tub and strangled Yousaf with a piece of cloth,” the FIR said.

The complainant further stated that he along with his cousins immediately shifted the bodies to Jinnah Hospital where paramedics confirmed they were dead.

Salman said his brother was a drug addict and the couple had frequent quarrels. He said the couple might have murdered their children with mutual consent. Sunny Khan refuted the allegations of his involvement in the murders and insisted his wife was the sole culprit.

“I was asleep on sofa. When I got up between 4am and 5am, I found my wife sitting there while both children lying on bed. I asked her if she wanted some medicine or milk for children, Bisma replied nothing would be required now as she had killed both of them”, Sunny told Dawn.

He said he immediately shook the children and getting no response from them raised an alarm.

“My cousin Haroon and his wife Kiran immediately took the children to the hospital where they were received dead. I preferred to stay with Bisma fearing any adverse reaction or suicide attempt by her,” Sunny, who is unemployed, said.

He said he suffered loss in his business associated with property mortgage. He said that he had been asking his mother to arrange money so that he could start a new business, but she refused.

Sunny said that he was meeting expenses by selling gold ornaments of his wife and through credit after his mother refused to financially support him.

He admitted that he took some sedatives after quarreling with his wife three days ago.

Bisma, who is intermediate, was married to her remote relative Sunny four years ago. She told police that she killed her children after getting frustrated by her husband’s unemployment, taunts of her in-laws and ‘poverty’ and that sunny had nothing to do with the murders.

She added that Sunny was addicted to narcotics and sedatives and also consumed liquor.

Muhammad Tahir, the girl’s father, told this reporter that before the couple’s marriage, Sunny’s family claimed they had a business that tuned out to be a lie. He said he could not believe his daughter had killed her own children.

Johar Town Investigation In-charge Imran Yaseen said though Bisma confessed to committing the murders, involvement of her husband in the crime could not be ruled out.

He said preliminary findings suggested that the girl was drowned in the tub. The IO said police had learnt Bisma had twice attempted suicide.

In January 2013 she consumed bleaching liquid and later she tried to hang herself with the ceiling fan, around four months ago, but Sunny foiled the bid. He said police had also recorded statements of other family members.

He said the family’s lifestyle did not match their claims of financial crunch. He said police were also probing into presence of a car in the house that carried a fake ‘MNA’ logo.

Johar Town police handed over the suspect (Bisma) to Racecourse women police for further interrogation. The burials were held at Miani Sahib graveyard.