MARDAN, April 19: Four people, including two children, were found slaughtered with a sharp-edged weapon in their hotel room here at New Bus Adda, the hotel administration and city police said on Thursday.

According to Shalimar Hotel’s owner and employees, a man accompanied by a woman and two children had booked the room No 16 of the hotel on Wednesday.

They said that they became suspicious when the inmates did not come out of the room till late on Thursday. The hotel staff said that they called officials of city police station, who broke door of the room open and found all the four inmates slaughtered to death.

The police took all the bodies to district headquarters hospital for autopsy. The officials said that they had also taken the owner and all employees of the hotel into their custody for investigation. They said that they had recovered identity cards and Rs95,000 cash from the purse of the woman.

They said that according to the identity cards the slain woman was identified as Zartaja Akram, 27, w/o Akram Khan and resident of Barajaba Gujar Gabraal, Swat district, while the man was identified as Izzat Faqir s/o Malik Juma Faqir, resident of Lamoti, Kalkot tehsil, Upper Dir district.

The police said that they had recovered a Canadian driving licence of one Majid Ali from the slain man. They said that the minors both below five years of age seemed to be children of the deceased woman.

The DHQ hospital officials told media persons that three of the victims were slaughtered to death with a sharp-edged weapon. They said that there were also signs of torture on the bodies of the victims.