By Tariq Saeed

TOBA TEK SINGH: A brick kiln owner allegedly killed his three daughters by poisoning and strangling them while his wife survived the attempt on her life at Chak 757-GB near Pirmahal, some 55 kilometres from here, on Saturday night.

According to a confessional letter found near the bodies, said to be written by the accused, Muhammad Bakhsh, he poisoned his wife Kulsoom Bibi and daughters Zoya (15), Misbah (13) and Mafia (8), fearing their abduction at the hands of his enemies who had threatened him that they would do so to humiliate him.

He said he committed the act as he had no son who could protect the girls from his enemies whose names were not mentioned in the statement.

He said no one else was involved in the act, adding he would court arrest after killing his enemies.

According to police, Muhammad Bakhsh’s wife Kulsoom, who was fortunate to survive the attempt, was admitted to the local rural health centre where she was still unconscious.

According to the postmortem report issued by the doctors at Pirmahal RHC, the girls were poisoned and then strangled with a rope.

The accused had two other daughters — Madeeha (4) and Khadija (6) — whom he did not poison.

Arrouti police have registered a case against the accused under Section 302 of the PPC on the complaint of Kulsoom’s brother Muhammad Ali.

The complainant alleged the accused often quarrelled with Kulsoom and wanted to contract second marriage as he wanted to have a male heir.

Till the filing of this report, the accused was at large. SHO Abdul Saboor said police were conducting raids to arrest the accused.

Meanwhile, the deceased girls were buried in the village graveyard on Sunday after a largely attended funeral.
Source: Dawn
Date:5/24/2010