RAWALPINDI, Jan 23: After four days of investigation, the police on Wednesday arrested four persons, including two women, allegedly involved in the murder of five members of a family found dead in People’s Colony last Sunday.

This was disclosed by City Police Officer (CPO) Saud Aziz during a press conference at his office on Wednesday.

“The accused have confessed to their crime,” the CPO said.

The alleged killers are two private security guards, Saeed Akhtar and Khadim Hussain, Saeed’s wife Riffat and his niece Sumaira Bibi. Riffat Bibi had also been working as private security guard and all of them were involved in “immoral activities”, police said.

The CPO said the four accused were arrested from Faisalabad where they were staying at the deceased Jamshaid’s sister’s house.

Investigators suspect that the deceased were first poisoned and then hammered to death as an empty bottle of poison and a hammer, believed to be the murder weapon, were found lying near the bodies.

Mr Aziz said after the incident came to light, Saleem Khan, the younger brother of Jamshaid Khan, lodged a complaint with the R.A. Bazaar police, saying that his brother, his wife Tahira Jabeen, brother-in-law Abid Hussain and two stepchildren, Shakir and Ramsha, had been residing in People’s Colony for the last one year.

He said on Sunday (January 20), after getting information that five members of his family had been murdered, Saleem Khan along with Mohammad Bashir reached Jamshaid’s house and found him and his wife Tahira Jabeen’s bodies lying on a bed, and that of Abid Hussain on the floor.

CPO Saud Aziz said after registration of the case, a police party led by DSP Rana Shahid was formed to trace the killers.

The investigators seized a mobile phone card from the scene of the crime and started investigation which led to the killers and their arrest, a source close to the investigation said.

The CPO claimed that the motive behind the murder was monetary dispute as Jamshaid was involved in immoral activities along with his wife. He had also engaged Riffat and Sumaira in his activities.

He further claimed that Jamshaid used to get major part of the money which had annoyed the women. Quoting Riffat’s statement, the CPO said Khadim Hussain called Saeed Akhtar from Talagang on Saturday and planned the murders.

Riffat said she and Sumaira had been staying at Jamshaid’s house for the last three days and had planned to kill Jamshaid and his wife. She said they had to kill Jamshaid’s brother-in-law and his two stepchildren when they got up and saw them committing the crime. The CPO said Riffat mixed 81 sleeping pills in tea and offered it to Jamshaid, his wife and brother-in-law. Later, Saeed and his accomplice hammered them to death.

In her statement, she said first Saeed killed Jamshaid and then his wife. They later killed their children in the same manner.