The victims have been identified as Hakikat Singh Panag, 59, his wife, Paramjit Kaur, 62, their daughter, Shalinder Kaur, 39, and his sister-in-law, Amarjit Kaur, 58.

They were found dead at their home in West Chester apartment complex in Cincinnati’s Lakefront. All four of them died of “apparent gunshot wounds,” West Chester Township Police Chief Joel Herzog said.

A family member called 911 after he found the bodies at the apartment in suburban Ohio community, Mr Herzog said. “My wife and three other family members were on the ground and bleeding… they’re bleeding from the head,” a man said on the 911 call released by the police. “No one’s talking, no one’s talking,” he shouted.

At least one of the victims was preparing food when they died, the police said. By the time the cops arrived at the apartment, the unattended dish was on fire, police said.

The killer is on the run and has not been traced yet.

The Indian Consulate in New York on its official Twitter account said the officials were in “constant touch” with the West Chester Township Police and the family.

“We are confident about the culprit being brought to book,” the Indian Consulate assured in one of the tweets.

The Correspondent Bureau with inputs from agencies

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The Foreign Minister made a strong statement against Pakistan and its refusal to act against terrorist groups on its soil in China. Justifying the pre-dawn air strike in Pakistan’s Balakot, Sushma Swaraj also spoke about the “grief and anger” in India after the Pulwama terror attack, in which 40 soldiers were killed by a suicide bomber of the Jaish.

Sushma Swaraj, in China to attend the 16th Russia-India-China or RIC foreign ministers’ meeting in Wuzhen, stressed during talks with her counterparts from Beijing and Moscow that “no military installations were targeted” in the air strike, and the target was selected to avoid civilian casualties.

“In the light of continuing refusal of Pakistan to acknowledge and act against terror groups on its territory, and based on credible information that JeM was planning other attacks in parts of India, the Government of India decided to take pre-emptive action and the target was selected in order to avoid civilian casualties,” said the External Affairs Minister.

“The limited objective of the pre-emptive strike was to act decisively against the terrorist infrastructure of the JeM in order to pre-empt another terrorist attack in India,” she added.

Ms Swaraj went on to say that “India does not wish to see a further escalation of the situation. India will continue to act with responsibility and restraint.”

The meeting took place just over 24 hours after Indian Air Force fighter planes struck what the government says was the biggest terror training camp in Pakistan’s Balakot, calling it a “non-military, pre-emptive strike” to prevent more attacks like Pulwama.

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