Two killed, three injured in police raid

Law enforcers claim they fired shots in self-defence.

SUKKUR:

The Kamber-Shahdadkot police raided a shop on Saturday and allegedly manhandled its owner, before killing his mother and brother after they tried to stop him.

When a crowd gathered and attempted to protect the man, the police opened fire, killing an elderly woman and her son and injuring three others, including the Laloo Raink Shopkeepers Association president, Manzoor Ali Solangi.

A large number of policemen, most of them dressed in plainclothes, led by Wagan SHO Abdul Salam Chandio, raided Manzoor's shop in Lohar Muhalla. A crowd - including Manzoor's mother, Lashma Khatoon, and brother, Chakar Solangi - gathered due to the commotion and tried to stop the police, who opened fire. As a result, Khatoon and Chakar were killed on the spot and Manzoor was injured. Fearing a backlash, the police fled from the scene while firing aerial shots. After the incident, Kamber-Shahdadkot SSP Malik Zafar Iqbal reached the Laloo Raink police station and addressed a hurriedly called press conference. Meanwhile, hundreds of Solangi tribesmen went to Larkana along with the bodies and staged a sit-in outside the office of the Police DIG. Larkana SSP Khalid Mustafa Korai and Larkana deputy commissioner Ghanwar Ali Leghari met the protesters and assured them of justice, after which the protest was called off.

Chandio, while talking to The Express Tribune, claimed that the police had raided the area to arrest the accused nominated in an FIR registered on the charges of killing former Wagan SHO Samandar Khan. He said that when the police reached the area, armed men opened fire upon them and the law enforcers acted in self-defence. Chandio also claimed that the woman and her son were killed by the shots fired by their own people rather than by the police. When contacted, Kamber-Shahdadkot SSP Malik Zafar Iqbal seconded Chandio's version.

Background

Reports in the media in Laloo Raink claimed that, on May 26, Abdul Jabbar Solangi was returning to his village, Mian Rato Solangi, after filing a constitutional petition in the Larkana Sindh High Court circuit bench against the police for raiding the villages of Solangi tribesmen and harassing them.

When he reached the Pakho bus stop, the Wagan police picked him up and took him to the police station, where he was beaten up by police officials. Scores of villagers reached the Wagan police station to protest the incident, where a scuffle took place between the police and the villagers and resultantly, the then Wagan police station SHO Samandar Khan and a passerby Allah Dino Panhwar were killed and six others including two policemen were injured.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 1^st, 2014.