Suffocation during nighttime sleep suspected to be deaths' cause, as toxic emissions from coal-fired stoves in poorly ventilated rooms previously resulted in deaths in valley.

Four members of a family, including a mother and her three minor children, were found dead on Wednesday morning inside their room in Checknarwa Chopada Pora area on the outskirts of Banihal town in the Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir, the police said.

The police have identified the deceased as 35-year-old Noor Jahan her children Zaffar Ahmad, 12, Shazia Bano, 8, and Aditya Bano, 5.

The police said that the cause of the deaths is yet to be ascertained. They have registered a case.

The bodies have been shifted to hospital for postmortem.

Faraz Ahmad, a resident of Kralpora village in the Kupwara district, where the unfortunate incident occurred, told Anadolu over the phone that the family was from the Bijnore district of Uttar Pradesh state of India.

He said local residents found the five members unconscious and informed a doctor, who pronounced the couple and their three children, including a newborn infant, dead.

The deaths appeared to be the result of suffocation, said a doctor at a local medical facility who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

But the true cause of death will be determined after the bodies are examined, he added.

Toxic emissions from coal-fired stoves in poorly ventilated rooms have previously resulted in deaths in Kashmir valley, where night temperatures drop to several degrees below zero.

Although daytime temperatures have begun to rise after the 40-day period of extreme cold, nights are still colder in remote areas such as the one where these deaths occurred