A man killed four members of his family – including his wife, two daughters and a son – before shooting himself dead in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Tank district on Tuesday.
Police while quoting neighbours said Syed Rasool, a jeweller by profession, owed millions of rupees to different vendors owing to which he was in troubled.
Authorities said that Rasool opened fire on his family and then proceeded to take his own life around 6am at his house in Qaziyano Muhalla.
Two other children were also shot at, injured and shifted to the hospital.
The family members were asleep when he shot dead his wife, Haleema Bibi, son Suleman, 18, Sobia, 20, Umera, 13, while 11-year-old Usman sustained critical bullet wounds.
The police said that they are investigating the incident from different aspects to ascertain any other reason for killing of the five people.
In a similar incident on March 17, a man committed suicide after killing his wife and three children in Rai Chand.
On a chilly December evening in 2008, Iqbal Muhammad Lodhi and his two sons retired to an upstairs room of their Sunehri Masjid Road house in Peshawar, to end their lives once and for all.
Lodhi, who ran a small garment outlet in the Gora Bazaar neighbourhood of Saddar, asked the females of his family that evening not to disturb their prayer of supplication — offered to get rid of the ballooning usurious loan they had borrowed a few years ago to expand their business.
Before they retired upstairs, the men borrowed a ballpoint from one of Iqbal’s granddaughters so they could accurately record the number of recitations. Early the next day, the granddaughter went up to collect her pen before she left for an exam she had scheduled for that day. Instead, she found the door locked from the inside.
Upon receiving no response from her father, uncle and grandfather, the panic-stricken girl rushed downstairs and informed the rest of her family. The resulting commotion led to the neighbours breaking down the door.
Inside, Iqbal Lodhi and both his sons were found dead, lying in a pool of blood.
“The pistol was in Iqbal’s hand,” said a police official, who had initially investigated the case. Curiously, the family members had not heard the sound of a gunshot during the night.
Following a complaint from Seema Lodhi, the wife of Iqbal Lodhi, the East Cantonment police station initiated an investigation of ‘unnatural death’ under section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code. But on the third day, women of the Lodhi family suspiciously left the city under the cover of night and shifted to Lahore.
"The family had initially approached banks for a loan; however, due to cumbersome and long procedures, they decided to approach a local moneylender,” the police official informed Dawn.com.
At a heavy price, an influential money-lender agreed to lend Rs200,000 to Lodhi and his sons.“He gave Iqbal only Rs180,000 and retained Rs20,000 as the first installment of interest,” a police official said.
Lodhi, who had promised to repay the loan within a year, failed to repay it in time. And in re-negotiating the contract with even more stringent conditions, the loan eventually reached several million rupees.
After the family lost their business, thugs sent by the money-lender would frequent their home, beat up male family members, hurl abuses at the females and issue threats of dire consequences if they failed to repay the borrowed amount with interest.
Not only had the Lodhi family lost everything, in addition to facing constant harassment and coercion, they had succumbed to stark poverty while trying to surmount the massive loan.
It was during this time that one of Iqbal’s daughters-in-law gave birth to a son at the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar. The family couldn't afford to pay for a taxi to bring the newborn and his mother back home, who had to walk several kilometres to make their way back.
Police officials say that the family had not mentioned any known reason for suicide in their initial complaint, and had left the city by the third day.
"It was only later we came to know that they had committed suicide after failing to pay the huge loans,” police added.
Since the surviving family members did not nominate a suspect in their FIR, the investigation failed to bear any fruit. Nor was there a law back then to control private money-lending.
The case was officially closed on July 15, 2017, and consigned to the wastebin of unsolved cases.
Although this heart-wrenching story of the Lodhi family's suicides highlighted the issue of massive interest on private loans, the illegal practice remains entrenched in the provincial capital and other districts of the province.
Almost eight years after the Lodhi family’s tragedy, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government introduced a new law called the ‘Prohibition of Interest on Private Loans Act in 2016’, thereby banning all interest-based private loans across the province.
Soon after the new law was passed, the police actively started collecting information on men involved in illegal money lending with inexcusably high interest rates. The data collected depicts the number of lenders and their addresses, in addition to collecting other details. However, the police have yet to take action against the lenders.
The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly members have announced a war against interest on loans by tabling a bill that suggests penalties to discourage the practice.
Before they retired upstairs, the men borrowed a ballpoint from one of Iqbal’s granddaughters so they could accurately record the number of recitations. Early the next day, the granddaughter went up to collect her pen before she left for an exam she had scheduled for that day. Instead, she found the door locked from the inside.
Upon receiving no response from her father, uncle and grandfather, the panic-stricken girl rushed downstairs and informed the rest of her family. The resulting commotion led to the neighbours breaking down the door.
Inside, Iqbal Lodhi and both his sons were found dead, lying in a pool of blood.
“The pistol was in Iqbal’s hand,” said a police official, who had initially investigated the case. Curiously, the family members had not heard the sound of a gunshot during the night.
Following a complaint from Seema Lodhi, the wife of Iqbal Lodhi, the East Cantonment police station initiated an investigation of ‘unnatural death’ under section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code. But on the third day, women of the Lodhi family suspiciously left the city under the cover of night and shifted to Lahore.
"The family had initially approached banks for a loan; however, due to cumbersome and long procedures, they decided to approach a local moneylender,” the police official informed Dawn.com.
At a heavy price, an influential money-lender agreed to lend Rs200,000 to Lodhi and his sons.“He gave Iqbal only Rs180,000 and retained Rs20,000 as the first installment of interest,” a police official said.
Lodhi, who had promised to repay the loan within a year, failed to repay it in time. And in re-negotiating the contract with even more stringent conditions, the loan eventually reached several million rupees.
After the family lost their business, thugs sent by the money-lender would frequent their home, beat up male family members, hurl abuses at the females and issue threats of dire consequences if they failed to repay the borrowed amount with interest.
Not only had the Lodhi family lost everything, in addition to facing constant harassment and coercion, they had succumbed to stark poverty while trying to surmount the massive loan.
It was during this time that one of Iqbal’s daughters-in-law gave birth to a son at the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar. The family couldn't afford to pay for a taxi to bring the newborn and his mother back home, who had to walk several kilometres to make their way back.
Police officials say that the family had not mentioned any known reason for suicide in their initial complaint, and had left the city by the third day.
"It was only later we came to know that they had committed suicide after failing to pay the huge loans,” police added.
Since the surviving family members did not nominate a suspect in their FIR, the investigation failed to bear any fruit. Nor was there a law back then to control private money-lending.
The case was officially closed on July 15, 2017, and consigned to the wastebin of unsolved cases.
Although this heart-wrenching story of the Lodhi family's suicides highlighted the issue of massive interest on private loans, the illegal practice remains entrenched in the provincial capital and other districts of the province.
Almost eight years after the Lodhi family’s tragedy, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government introduced a new law called the ‘Prohibition of Interest on Private Loans Act in 2016’, thereby banning all interest-based private loans across the province.
Soon after the new law was passed, the police actively started collecting information on men involved in illegal money lending with inexcusably high interest rates. The data collected depicts the number of lenders and their addresses, in addition to collecting other details. However, the police have yet to take action against the lenders.
The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly members have announced a war against interest on loans by tabling a bill that suggests penalties to discourage the practice.
The lawmakers tabled the bill, titled K-P Prohibition of Interest on Private Loans, in the house on Friday as a private-member bill. They also passed a resolution, making recommendations to the federal government to take tangible steps to wipe out interest from the country.Lawmakers Fakhr Azam Wazir, Mehmood Jan, Sultan Khan and Izazul Mulk Afkari tabled the bill while, lawmaker Saeed Gul passed the resolution which was unanimously adopted by the house.
Fine on interest
The bill puts Rs1 million fine, with imprisonment of up to 10 years and not less than 3 years, for the person who lends money on interest or on an interest-based transaction. The same punishment and fine stands for people, who intentionally and willfully abet, engage or aid a moneylender in recovery of interest or interest-based transactions.Moreover, the bill calls for a fine of Rs500,000 and imprisonment up to five years for those who harass any borrower or debtor for his own money or on behalf of anyone else. After the bill is passed, all liabilities to pay interest on debts will stand extinguished.KP Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser was interested in the bill and every party parliamentary leader welcomed the bill and extended their support to the government for wiping out interest on loans being taken by private people in the province.
The speaker said he received four cases in a month in which the loan borrowed skyrocketed. “People have to sell their houses to pay debt and loans,” he said. “I will call the IGP here and will ask him to launch a crackdown against the business.”
The opposition leader of the house, Maulana Lutfur Rahman, called it a curse, saying it has been destroying families. The lawmakers said lending loan on interest has become a profession and people involved in the business were so powerful that debtors have to sell their houses to pay back.
Fine on interest
The bill puts Rs1 million fine, with imprisonment of up to 10 years and not less than 3 years, for the person who lends money on interest or on an interest-based transaction. The same punishment and fine stands for people, who intentionally and willfully abet, engage or aid a moneylender in recovery of interest or interest-based transactions.Moreover, the bill calls for a fine of Rs500,000 and imprisonment up to five years for those who harass any borrower or debtor for his own money or on behalf of anyone else. After the bill is passed, all liabilities to pay interest on debts will stand extinguished.KP Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser was interested in the bill and every party parliamentary leader welcomed the bill and extended their support to the government for wiping out interest on loans being taken by private people in the province.
The speaker said he received four cases in a month in which the loan borrowed skyrocketed. “People have to sell their houses to pay debt and loans,” he said. “I will call the IGP here and will ask him to launch a crackdown against the business.”
The opposition leader of the house, Maulana Lutfur Rahman, called it a curse, saying it has been destroying families. The lawmakers said lending loan on interest has become a profession and people involved in the business were so powerful that debtors have to sell their houses to pay back.
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Usury