Pakistani kills 10 including ex-fiancee in dowry dispute

A man in northwest Pakistan gunned down his former fiancee and nine of her relatives Sunday, police said, six months after murdering his own parents and two brothers for refusing to pay his dowry.

The 25-year-old suspect, whom police named as Mir Ahmad Shah, was on the run after carrying out the pre-dawn attack with an AK-47 assault rifle in the Charsadda district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

"He stormed the house and killed all ten family members while they were asleep," district police chief Shafiullah Khan told AFP, adding that two children and four women were among the dead.

Khan said Shah was a fugitive wanted for the murder of his parents and two elder brothers last year. His family had refused to accept a demand by the father of his then-fiancee for a residential plot as a dowry settlement.

Gulzar Khan, another police official, said that after murdering members of his own direct family, Shah became enraged at his prospective in-laws for making the demand.

Shah was also the second cousin of his former fiancee, said Abdul Rashid, another senior police officer. Marriages in Pakistan are usually arranged and often take place between cousins. Brides families' often demand a hefty dowry as a form of insurance in case the marriage ends in divorce.