Pakistan: 6 Children Among 10 of Same Family Killed in Attack, Police Say No Connection to Terrorism

Ten members of the same family, including a two-year-old, were killed in a brutal late-night attack in Pakistan’s northwest. Two brothers, their wives and six children aged 12 and under were killed along with a guest in the Lakki Marwat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Tuesday night, police said.

“The initial investigation does not suggest any connection to terrorism,” district police chief Tariq Habib told AFP.

Inter-family feuds are common in Pakistan, but in the northwestern region — where communities abide by traditional honour codes — they can be particularly violent, lasting for generations. “We cannot dismiss the possibility of a personal vendetta as we further investigate the incident,” police official Mamoor Shah told AFP.

“They were killed with a sharp-edged weapon and some had bullet injuries,” he said. The incident was reported to police by neighbours of the family.

In March last year in the same province, 11 people including a prominent local politician were killed in an ambush blamed on a decades-long vendetta between families. Sixteen people were also killed within a matter of minutes in the province last May when two tribes clashed over a decades-long land dispute.