Wanted dacoits killed

Six wanted dacoits and a police informer were killed in a riverbed village along Sindh-Punjab border in Gehalpur area in Ghotki district on Thursday night.

Conflicting accounts emerged crediting the police and the collaborator for the killings.

While the Ghotki and Punjab police claim to have killed the wanted dacoits in a joint operation, there are unconfirmed reports that the informer Jinsar Chandio alone killed all the six before he was himself brutally murdered.

The dacoits recorded the video of Chandio’s killing and posted it to social media.

The police claimed that the notorious dacoit Janu Indhar, who also carried head money of Rs10 million, is among those killed. The other slain outlaws include Soomar Shar, Nazar Muhammad Shar, Musheer Indhar, Shahzad Dashti and Bhuro Shar.

The slain robbers had allegedly killed and injured dozens of policemen of Sindh and Punjab police besides killing, injuring and kidnapping scores of the common people. Indhar was accused of killing nine persons of his own Indhar tribe in a single incident over a year ago.

Soomar Shar, a brother of the notorious dacoit Sultu Shar, was blamed for killing five cops in November, 2022, in Ghotki district and also injuring four policemen in the same attack in Ravanti area, Ghotki. The martyred officials included Deputy Superintendent of Police Abdul Malik Bhutto, SHO Deen Muhammad Laghari, SHO Abdul Malik Kamangar and constables Jatoi Pitafi and Saleem Chachar.

According to another account of the incident, Jinsar Chandio and his gang were invited for a party by Indhar and Shar on Thursday night. Chandio later shot dead the slain dacoits before he was caught by the Shar tribe who later subjected him to a torturous death.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 29^th, 2023.