LAHORE, Dec 22: A woman and her maid were shot dead in mysterious circumstances at Chah Pichwara in Mozang on Thursday. Shamim Tariq, a trader, told police that he had left his house for morning walk when the incident took place. On his return, he said, he found his house locked from inside. He opened the door with his own keys.

Mr Tariq said he found his wife Samina Tariq, 40, and the maid, Nazia, 16, lying dead in his bedroom. They had been shot in their heads, he added.

He called out the police which removed the bodies to the mortuary. Police said the women had been shot thrice in their heads after being put under a pillow. They quoted a neighbour as saying that he saw three children of the trader leaving the house for their school at 7am.

The trader claimed it was robbery-cum-murder, saying that cash and gold jewellry were found missing. However, the police ruled out this possibility.

The police said the modus operandi of the killings had nothing to do with robbers. “No robber would use a pillow for shooting victims,” they said.

As no evidence of resistance, either by the woman or the maid, were witnessed on the spot, it showed that three to four persons might have intruded into the house, the police suspected.