SAHIWAL: A man gunned down seven members of his family, including his mother, two brothers, a sister, a sisterin-law, two minor nephews and critically injured a niece, over `unfair` distribution of the family`s inherited land at Bari Rakh village on Depalpur Road, Pakpattan district, on Saturday.

As per police sources, the prime suspect, Sarwar, had a dispute over division of 48 acres of the family`s agricul-tural land with his brothers.

Meanwhile, Sarwar`s elder brother, Iftikhar, got more than25 acrestransferredinhis name and gave only five acres to the suspect and another youngerbrotherShaheryar.

The police sources said Sarwar harboured a grudge against Iftikhar and Shaheryarovertheissue.

Locals said the village and family elders tried to resolve the issue by holding panchayats, but tension persisted among the brothers, as Sarwar insisted on redistribution of the land.

Police sources said that on Saturday, Sarwar got enraged over the issue and first gunned down his brothers Iftikhar and Sheharyar, who were working in the fields, and later went home and killed the women, leaving hisminorniececriticallyinjured.

Police said on reachinghome, the suspect first killed his mother, Basheean Bibi, who was asleep in the courtyard and later broke opened the door of a room where his sister-in-law Asia Bibi, wife of Iftikhar, her two sons, Ahad (9), Ahmed (11), his younger sister Muftah Bibi (22), had taken shelter, and sprayed them with bullets, leaving all of them dead on the spot. His seven-year-old niece Aysha was injured in the firing.

The DPO told Dawn on phone that four police teams, including a CIA team, led by two DSPs were conducting raids at different locations to arrest the suspect and his accomplices.

He said initial forensic analysis of the crime scene had been conducted and the bodies had been shifted to the Pakpattan District Headquarters Hospital for autopsy.

Punjab IGP Dr Usman Anwar took notice of the murders and ordered the Sahiwal RPO to ensure arrest of the the killers and their accomplices.

On being informed of the incident, Pakpattan DPO Hasan Iqbal, along with DSP Ashraf and Saddar SHO Rai Khizer visited the crime scene and ordered cordoning off the village for security.

The locals complained that Rescue 1122 ambulance arrived late and the injured Ayesha had to be shifted to the DHQ hospital in the police vehicle.