Slain hari's family stages sit-in

End dharna on assurance of police to arrest nominated landlord

HYDERABAD:

The two-day sit-in, blocking Thar coal road in Badin district, ended on Friday with the police assuring the protesters arrest of the influential landlord who has been accused for murder of a peasant, Kailash Kolhi.

Thousands of men, women and children from the minority community, supported by over a dozen political, nationalist and religious parties, had staged the sit-in demanding arrest of Sarfaraz Nizamani who had allegedly gunned down Kolhi on January 4 in a village in Talhar, Badin.

Deputy Commissioner of Badin, Yasir Bhatti, and the district's SSP Qamar Raza Jikani held three rounds of negotiations with the protesters, led by the slain young peasant's father Chetan Kolhi. The demonstrators, which had also blocked the city's road leading towards Hyderabad through Tando Muhammad Khan district, dispersed after giving one-week deadline to the police to bring Nizamani behind the bars.

Chetan alleged that Nizamani was furious and drunk when he killed his son. According to him, they rushed to the spots after hearing the gunshots. "I saw my son fallen on the ground with bullet wounds. Nizamani and his men pointed guns at us as well before escaping."

Sodhi Kolhi, a minority rights activist from Badin, deplored that an innocent peasant was killed in broad daylight but the police appear reluctant to arrest the prime accused even after passage of five days. She asked the police officers that if they felt even an iota of sympathy for the country's poor people, they should bring Nizamani to the book.

The Badin District Bar Association on Friday boycotted courts in protest against the killing and to denounce the alleged reluctance of the police in arresting the accused. The bar also participated in the protest where the local leaders of Sindh Kolhi Ittehad and several political and nationalist parties were also present.