Cops, LEA officials booked for allegedly killing villagers

Nationalist parties protest in almost all districts across Sindh

KARACHI:

The Benazirabad police on Friday booked unknown cops and personnel of Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) in the First Information Report (FIR) of killing four persons and injuring five others in Maari Jalbani village in Sakrand taluka on September 29.

Reportedly, the case was registered on the complaint of Rahib Jalbani, brother of slain 38-year-old Sajawal, apparently under pressure of the villagers and their supporters from across the province who blocked the National Highway by staging a sit-in protest with the dead bodies.

The complaint was lodged at Maari Jalbani police station under sections 302 and 324 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), nominating 40 to 45 unknown LEA personnel.

Jalbani stated in the FIR that the raid was conducted at around 2:45pm on September 28. According to him, he was sitting in a house with his brother Sajawal, relatives named Imam Bux, Nizamuddin, Mehaar, Imamuddin, Allahdad, Sarang, Ali Nawaz and Liaquat, at the time of the incident.

He claimed that five mobile vans of the police, a black coloured Toyota Vigo and several vehicles of law enforcement agencies suddenly approached outside the house. There were personnel in uniform as well as in civvies, he added.

The complainant alleged that the LEA personnel said that all of them sitting in that house were terrorists and they would not be spared, adding that in an instant they opened indiscriminate fire.

Jalbani stated that his brother Sajawal and relative Nizamuddin died on the spot while seven others were injured. He added that Imam Bux and Mehaar died on way to Taluka Hospital Sakrand where the deceased and injured were shifted by the villagers in private vehicles.

The sobbing mother of slain brothers Nizamuddin and Imam Bux, Jannat Jalbani, told the local media that her sons were killed in front of her eyes while her third son also sustained gunshot injuries.

She claimed that women of her home begged the cops to spare the lives of their men but they did not listen.

Sadori Jalbani, mother of Mehaar, said her son had just returned after work in the agricultural field when he was brutally killed.

Sindh United Party President Syed Zain Shah, Jeay Sindh Mahaz Chairman Riaz Ali Chandio, Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz-Arisar's Aslam Khairpuri and Niaz Kalani, Sindh Taraqi Pasand party's Nisar Ahmed Keerio, and many activists have joined the protest camp at Sakrand bypass besides a large number of the locals. The sit-in continued for around 24 hours, starting in the evening of September 28. The sit-in blocked the movement of vehicles within the province and towards Punjab.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2023.