A Bradford man has been murdered in an execution-style gang killing while he was visiting his sick mother in Pakistan.

Raja Amin, 55, who lived in the Toller Lane area and was a plumber, left the UK more than two weeks ago to be with his ill mother, Sara, at his brother Akram’s home in the village of Jabber, outside Gujar Khan.

But police officials in Pakistan have confirmed that Mr Amin, his 45-year-old brother Akram, and his brother’s 35-year-old wife Shazia, were all killed by a trio of gun-toting raiders during a disturbance on Monday night.

Police said Mr Raja’s mother suffered blows to her face after being whipped repeatedly with the butt of a pistol.

A British passport belonging to Mr Raja and £200 cash was found at the scene. It is not clear why the intruders scaled the walls to carry out the attack but police said nothing appeared to have been stolen.

Speaking from Pakistan, Mirza Jamil Baig, of Gujar Khan District Police, said that the suspects were still at large.

Mr Baig said: “One of Amin’s brothers told police that he went to his brother’s house about 8am on Tuesday and he saw that Amin, Akram and Shazia had been murdered. There were bullet injuries to the head of Amin and Akram and one in the neck and throat of Shazia.

“His mother had two or three injuries on the head and face but she was alive. She told her son that at 11pm she was sitting with her sons at home, gossiping about family matters. Three unknown persons came suddenly and they switched off the power to the house and started shooting indiscriminately, then she passed out.”

Mr Baig said she had been taken to hospital in Rawalpindi and that family members from Bradford had flown to be with her. He said police were in the early stages of their investigations.

“It is not quite clear why this happened. There are two or three possibilities but I don’t think it was a robbery because robbers don’t just kill people and leave.”

A number of people had been interviewed and questioned.

Photographs provided by poth war.com, a community website covering Pakistan and the UK, show crowds of mourners gathering outside the family home on Tuesday morning.

Many said prayers and hundreds more joined family members for the funerals at the village yesterday afternoon.

Toller ward councillor Imran Hussain (Lab) said: “It’s a very shocking and tragic incident and clearly at this time my thoughts and prayers are with the family in particular in this very religious month for Muslims. I would urge the British and Pakistan governments to do all they can to bring these people to justice.”

A spokesman for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: “We are in touch with the family and providing consular assistance.”