Dispute over goat claims two lives

Victims' relatives allege police collusion with rival group

LODHRAN:

A dispute between two groups in Lodhran, sparked by a long-standing feud over a goat, resulted in the deaths of two more people raising the death toll linked to the dispute to seven.

On Monday, members of the Ranjha group opened fire, killing Muhammad Sharif, the head of the Sharif group, along with nephew.

The incident has reignited tensions that have simmered between the two groups for over a decade.

The killings occurred in the Darbar Qurban Shah area, where the Ranjha group ambushed members of the Sharif group.

The police said the assailants, armed and hiding in a nearby cornfield, opened fire on Sharif and his cousin Najam. Both men died as a result of the attack and two more members of the Sharif group were injured in the ensuing violence.

The victims' families staged a protest outside the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital, accusing local police of failing to provide justice. Despite waiting for over eight hours, the families complained that the post-mortem of the deceased had not been carried out due to delays by the hospital administration. They claimed that Habib, an employee of DHQ and a relative of the rival Baloch group, was deliberately obstructing the process.

The families of the deceased accused the police of siding with the Ranjha group.

"If the police had arrested the proclaimed offenders earlier, these murders would not have happened today," said Muhammad Akbar, the son of the deceased Muhammad Sharif.

The ongoing feud between the Sharif and Ranjha groups dates back to a dispute in 2012 over a goat, which escalated into a series of retaliatory killings.

In 2023, Muhammad Sharif's son, Ali Hassan, was killed by members of the Ranjha group, further intensifying the animosity.

Sharif himself was shot in the arm in a separate attack last year. His family claims the police refused to register a case or issue medical certificates for the injuries, alleging that the authorities have consistently sided with the Ranjha group.

Following Monday's attack, the police have registered a case against 12 named suspects, including Ibad, Siddique, Junaid, and others, on the statement of Muhammad Akbar.

The FIR states that the suspects ambushed the victims while they were grazing animals near their home.

"They declared that no one from our family would be left alive today," Akbar told the police.

The families of the victims have raised further concerns about the police's handling of the case. "The police have arrested our men in the past on false charges while letting the real culprits go free," said Shehbaz, a nephew of Muhammad Sharif.