Three killed over tribal vendetta in Shikarpur

Members of Bhayo tribe were harvesting wheat when allegedly targeted by Marfanis

HYDERABAD:

Three persons, including two women, were shot dead in an armed attack allegedly by men of Marfani tribe on the people of Bhayo tribe who were reportedly harvesting wheat when they were attacked. The incident happened on Friday in village Darya Khan in Shikarpur district.

The Bhayo community has blamed Pakistan Peoples Party's MPA Imtiaz Shaikh and his son Faraz Shaikh for backing Marfanis. According to Jahan Wah police, the two sides continued to fire gunshots on the positions of each other until they reached the village and took control.

No suspect could be arrested from the crime scene. The police identified the slain persons as Noor Muhammad Bhayo, his wife Ghulam Fatima Bhayo and 22 years old Lala Khatoon Bhayo, wife of Nisar Ahmed Bhayo. The ongoing tribal dispute has so far claimed 10 lives reportedly.

The bodies were shifted to civil hospital Shikarpur for postmortem. The community later took the bodies in ambulances to Zero Point area in Shikarpur along the National Highway and staged a sit-in, demanding arrest of the assailants and action against Shaikh's son.

The former federal minister Mir Abid Hussain Bhayo and Mir Babal Khan Bhayo later intervened to persuade the protesters to end their sit-in. The jurisdiction's police is still to register FIR of the incident.

Meanwhile, Shaikh has denied any connection of his family with the killings. He told the media in Shikarpur that an on-going tribal clash between Marfanis and Bhayos is responsible for the deaths.

Mir Babal Khan Bhayo, who heads his tribe, has also asked his people not to blame any political figure for the incident. "If anyone is involved in killings of innocent people, their name will ultimately surface during the investigation."

Four men of Marfani tribe and four men and two women of Bhayo tribe have so far lost their lives owing to that dispute which is going on for years. The local people blame the police for failing to bring to the book the culprits who have been killing other people with impunity.

Kandhkot protest

Thousands of people took out a protest rally in Kashmore-Kandhkot district on Friday, condemning the rapid rise of the crimes like killings, kidnappings, rape and robberies in the districts of Larkan and Sukkur divisions. The rally started outside the Deputy Commissioner's office and marched its way to the local press club.

"There is restlessness among the people. Neither can we do business nor can send our children to school," said Hafiz Nasrullah Channa. "People are shifting their families to other cities."

"We only want peace and nothing else," said Ghulam Mustafa Mirani. "The people are being kidnapped in broad daylight as if the kidnappers don't feel fear of anything to stop them."

Dilmurad Dahani and Chaudhry Deewan Lal argued that the police operation is a farce to silence and to give fake hope to the people whose lives have been left at the mercy of bandits of riverbed. The protesters also accused the police for fanning the flames of tribal conflicts by failing to bring to the book the people who start the conflicts by killing men and women.

The protesters appealed the chief justice of the supreme court Qazi Faez Isa and the army chief Gen Syed Asim Munir as well as to the federal government to intervene in order to save their lives, assets and businesses.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 27^th, 2024.