Double murder case: Mob attacks police, blocks arrest of Mahar

FIR lodged against 76 attackers; key suspect flees during scuffle with locals.

SUKKUR: Police on Saturday arrested two of the principal accused in the Shikarpur double murder case – but not without a fight.

Law enforcement personnel came under attack when they mounted a raid on Wazirabad town to arrest PML-F lawmaker Ghous Bux Mahar and others accused of holding an illegal jirga. The jirga had reportedly ordered the slaying of two girls for ‘illicit relations’ with members of a rival tribe.

Supporters of the lawmaker prevented the police from arresting Mahar and enabled one of the accused to escape.

An armoured personnel carrier used by the police was badly damaged in the attack. Police have lodged an FIR against 76 persons for attacking the police contingent, led by SSP Shikarpur.

The police have come under pressure from the apex court to arrest those responsible for the jirga after the Supreme Court took suo motu notice of the case on March 20.

On Saturday, police cordoned off the Wazirabad area in Lakhi Ghulam Shah taluka of Shikarpur district, in order to arrest Ghous Bux Mahar, Nadir Ali Shah, Mehboob Mahar and Mir Hassan Mahar. Some 20 people, including these men, were charged with holding an illegal jirga, confining two girls and imposing a fine of Rs 2.4 million on two men from the Jagirani tribe – while Ghous Bux Mahar allegedly presided over the jirga that sentenced two girls to death for being ‘kari’. The FIR does not include murder charges. The victims’ bodies have not yet been found.

According to police officials, locals in Wazirabad entered a scuffle with the police and prevented officers from carrying out their duties, later forcing them to leave the area. DSP Lakhi Ghulam Shah Jawed Jalbani claimed that police arrested Abdullah Mahar and his cousin Sanaullah Mahar, and handed them over to the Sukkur Crime Branch investigation officer Abdul Qudoos Kalwar. Kalwar confirmed that these men were arrested by police officials.

However, sources said the accused were handed over to the police by a sardar of the Mahar tribe.

Ghous Bux Mahar’s son MPA Sheheryar Mahar spoke with The Express Tribune and denied that his father presided over a jirga. “This is an act of political vengeance to malign my father,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2014.