Murder: Young man killed over sand lifting dispute

FAISALABAD: An 18-year-old student of third year at a college was clubbed to death by unidentified men in Chak 357-GB on Thursday in a dispute over filling sand from a canal. His relatives held a demonstration demanding that the police arrest his assailants without delay.

A spokesperson for the Rodala Road police station said Arsalan Shaukat, son of ASI Shaukat Ali, and his friends were on their way home after loading a tractor trolley with sand from a canal near Chak 24-GB, Jaranwala, when some unidentified men waylaid them and forced them to hand over the sand they had loaded onto their trolley.

He said that Shaukat and friends returned to the canal to get more sand but the same men arrived at the scene and stopped them from loading sand on to the trolley.

The two groups got into an argument and a scuffle erupted. Police said that the men used a shovel to kill Shaukat. Later, his relatives gathered at Jhal Chowk on Jaranwala Road and blocked it for traffic. They placed the body on the road and demanded that the police arrest the murderers without delay.

The Jaranwala DSP, accompanied a police team to the scene, and told the protesters that they would do everything in their power to arrest the culprits and take them to task.

The protesters then called the protest off and dispersed.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12^th, 2016.