THE SON of murdered businessman Mohammed "Tony" Karim and his wife Bilquis has spoken of his horror at discovering his parents' bodies in their jeweller's shop.

The murdered couple, of Whalley Old Road, Little Harwood, Blackburn, were discovered by their sons Shabir and Shafiq at their Preston shop last Friday afternoon. The double killing has shocked the close knit community of Little Harwood and the family have offered a substantial award in a bid to bring the killers to justice.

Following a search of the shop by the family it has been revealed £30,000 worth of jewellery was taken by the killers and police are looking at robbery as one possible motive.

Most of the missing jewellery is gold bracelets taken from the shop's display window.

Shabir, 27, said: "They have actually devastated our family, the foundations of our family have now gone.

"These men need to be locked up, they need to be put behind bars." Shabir described how he discovered the bodies of Mr Karim, 52, and his 48-year-old wife. He said: "Me and my brother had to borrow a hammer from one of the neighbouring shops to smash the door through.

"They were in the back office of the shop. I was only in their a few minutes. I walked in and saw my mum and dad both lay there on the floor, we rang for the ambulance straight away.

"I didn't know what had happened. The woman (emergency services operator)asked me to see if they were alive but before I could the first ambulance was there. They were there within seconds." Shabir said: "Looking at my dad's injuries and the way my mother looked I realised something terrible had happened.

"My dad never had a cross word to say to anyone for years and years, he was so calm about everything. My mum was like the angels. "They wanted to make their home because they had no life security where they came from. In the end they had no life security here."

He went on: "We feel it was an armed robbery. Two men had come into the shop behaving as potential customers and something went wrong.

"I don't think there would have been a struggle. My dad is not the sort of person to fight.

"My dad would not have jeopardised his life or my mum's life for any amount of money.

"I know my dad wouldn't have struggled he would have held his hands up and said take what you want."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.