Four members of a family, including a six-month-old girl, were killed and their bodies set ablaze by unidentified persons in this district of Rajasthan on Wednesday, police said.

The assailants first slit the throats of the family members and then set their hut afire early in the morning in Cheria village of the Osian area, they said.

Police rushed to the spot after villagers alerted them noticing the fire in the hut.

Superintendent of Police (Jodhpur Rural) Dharmendra Singh Yadav said preliminary investigation pointed to some family dispute.

Those killed were identified as Poonaram (55), his wife Bhanwari (50), their daughter-in-law Dhapu (23) and her six-month-old daughter Manisha.

Yadav said police teams have been formed to investigate the case.

A dog squad and a forensic team were also roped in to gather evidence, he added.

"We are not sure about the cause of the killings but it certainly was not a theft case. We believe that the killers had come with the sole objective of murder," Yadav said.

Poonaram's son had left for work in stone quarry after dinner on Tuesday night, locals said.

Jodhpur Collector Himanshu Gupta, SP Singh and other officers visited the spot.

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