Four killed in village operation

‘Paramilitary troops were attacked when they raided to catch suspects’

HYDRABAD:

Four men, with apparently no criminal record, were shot dead and at least five others including women sustained injuries in a raid by the Rangers and the police in a village in Benazirabad, Nawabshah district on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Caretaker Home Minister Brig (retd) Harris Nawaz has also claimed that four personnel of the law enforcement agencies (LEAs) were also injured in the incident in the Maari Khan Jalbani Village of Sakrand taluka.

According to home minister, police and Rangers raided the village on a tip-off about the presence of a terrorist but they came under attack by the villagers. The local residents, however, differed with this account, contending that the LEAs wanted to raid the residence of an elderly political worker Rajab Jalbani which caused a confrontation.

As per Sindhi media reports, the LEA personnel tried to barge into the homes without any warrant or warning, the locals tried to talk to them to produce any document, on which the LEA personnel opened fire.

The Sindh United Party, separately, accused the Pakistan Peoples Party for using the police to intimidate the party’s supporters in a village which always supported the SUP as the elections drew closer. The party leader Syed Zainul Abidin Shah had secured the second highest number of votes against the PPP candidate Ghulam Qadir Chandio in 2013 and 2018 general elections.

The Benazirabad SSP Syed Haider Raza told the local media that the district police were unaware about the raid conducted by the Counter Terrorism Department and the Rangers. According to him, when the police went to the village the residents resorted to pelting stones owing to which the cops retreated.

National Highway blocked

Following the incident, the local people blocked the National Highway in Sakrand by staging a sit-in protest along with the bodies of the victims they had brought in loader rickshaws. The protesters demanded that the officials of the CTD and Rangers involved in the bloody raid should be arrested and punished as per the law. The incident’s FIR has not been lodged so far.

A local resident told the media in the hospital that five vehicles of Rangers and four to five police mobiles raided the village. The slain persons have been identified as 32-year-old Akan Allahdad Jalbani, 30-year-old Nehal Jalbani, 25-year-old Nizamuddin Jalbani and 30-year-old Sajawak Ali Jalbani.

The injured were referred from taluka hospital Sakrand to Peoples Medical College Hospital, Nawabshah.

Call for inquiry

The incident also drew condemnation from the nationalist parties. The Sindh Taraqipasand Party (STP) Chairman Dr Qadir Magsi demanded immediate action against the LEAs personnel responsible for the killings besides calling for a judicial inquiry.

Qaumi Awami Tehreek’s President Ayaz Latif Palijo said the country’s law does not allow the enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings at the hands of LEAs. He asked the authorities to conduct an impartial probe and provide justice to families of the victims. The SUP’s president Shah also demanded a judicial inquiry.

The Awami Tehreek President Lal Jarwar urged the Supreme Court to take notice of the incident and provide justice to the victims of Maari Jalbani Village. He also asked the human rights organisations to raise their voice. He said the personnel involved in the killings should be booked under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

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