Three brothers allegedly ‘shot dead by neighbours’

Deranged suspects opened fire after one of the victims scolded a child for sitting on car bonnet

LAHORE:

Three brothers were shot dead over a petty dispute in their neighbourhood on Monday.

Reportedly, the deceased were identified as Hafiz Tahir Mehmood, Tahir Masood and Hafiz Mohammad Zeeshan Yaqub. In the incident in Shahdara, the three brothers were allegedly shot dead over a minor issue by their neighbours.

The deranged suspects opened fire after a brother of the three victims, Tahir Mehboob, scolded a minor boy for sitting on the bonnet of his guests’ car parked outside his home. The complainant Tahir Mehboob said in his statement before police that his two brothers-in-law Muhammad Arif Khan and Muhammad Tanveer was visiting him from Muzaffarabad. The guests had parked their car in front of Mehboob’s house. As he came outside his home in the evening, he saw a boy named Ghulam Abbas sitting on the bonnet of the car. He asked the boy not to sit there. Annoyed by the scolding, the boy went inside his home.

Later, Ghulam Abbas’ mother Rasheeda Bibi came outside her home and started hurling abuses at Mehboob. When he asked Rasheeda to stop the abuse, she allegedly threatened to “teach him a lesson”. She called her husband Asghar Ali, sons Raza Ali and Ghulam Abbas, brother Hameed, her brother-in-law Amjad, a relative named Akram Jalali, her nephew Zain and four unidentified suspects.

They went to Mehboob’s house and knocked at the door. Mehboob’s brother Tahir Mehmood opened the door at which Rasheeda ordered her accomplices to “kill them all”, the complainant said.

The suspect Raza Ali shot at Tahir Mehmood at which his other brother Tahir Masood came came forward to shield him. However, the suspect Akram shot Masood in the abdomen.

When the third brother Zeeshan Yaqub came out, the suspect Asghar shot him in the abdomen.

The suspects Hameed, Zain and others then opened fire, killing all three brothers.

The suspects afterwards climbed up their rooftop and resorted to indiscriminate firing at the victims’ houses.

A heavy contingent of police rushed to the spot on information, cordoned off the area and collected forensic evidence from the crime scene.

A case was registered against the suspects. Police said that they were investigating the matter further.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2021.