HARIPUR, Nov 22: An Afghan woman, her two sons and a daughter, were shot dead in Khalabat Township, a locality of Tarbela dam affected people, here on Sunday night. Khalabat Township police and locals told this correspondent that the family of an Afghan refugee Haji Mohammad Amin comprising his wife, two sons and a daughter, had been living in a rented house of sector No 3 of the township for the last two and half years. They said the family head was in Afghanistan.

On Sunday morning, according to area people and police, some schoolchildren went to the house of Afghan family and found the doors of their house opened with all the family members lying in a pool of blood. They informed their elders who called the police that took the bodies into custody and shifted them to district headquarters hospital Haripur for autopsy.

According to initial investigation, some unknown assailants who could be the close relatives of the family came there and shot them dead with sophisticated weapons. The police believe that the circumstantial evidence suggested that the incident was a result of a family feud and not a terrorist act or a dacoity.

Those killed were identified as Aghal Jan, wife of Haji Mohammad Amin, her sons Mohammad Arif Khan, 26, Alam, 16, and daughter Hanifa Bibi, 23.

Meanwhile, the police failed to register FIR against the assailants till Monday evening and the reason given to media persons was that some relatives of the family were on the way to Haripur who would formally lodge FIR against the assailants.