Unauthorised jurisdiction: Singer’s family shot in police raid
One brother and two nephews of folk music singer Urs Chandio killed when police open fire at their house during raid.
HYDERABAD:
One brother and two nephews of folk music singer Urs Chandio were killed when the police opened fire at their house during a raid Friday morning.
The police team from Waggan, Warah and Nasirabad towns of Kambar-Shahdadkot district conducted a raid at the house in Gharibabad, Jamshoro to arrest Urs Chandio.
The police climbed over the boundary wall and barged into the house. When they did not find Urs, they tried to arrest his relatives present in the house. On facing resistance, they opened fire, killing Urs’s brother Muhabat Ali, 28 and nephews Munir Ali, 25 and 16-year-old Irshad Ali. Meanwhile, Mashooq Ali Chandio, another brother of Urs Chandio, was critically injured and taken to Liaquat Medical College Hospital. The bodies were taken to Civil Hospital, Hyderabad.
When residents started gathering around the house, the police fled.
Urs Chandio told the media on the phone that he was in Lahore at the time of the raid and that the police had raided his house several times on the instigation of an influential landlord in Warah Town.
He said he had repeatedly appealed to the authorities for protection, which they had ignored. Fake cases have been registered against me, he added.
Meanwhile, Ali Muhammad Chandio, Urs’s elder brother, told reporters that about 20 police mobiles led by three DSPs had come for the raid.
Another relative, Anwar, told the Daily Express that there was a girl’s kidnapping case registered against Urs.
According to the Jamshoro police, an FIR has been registered against DPO Kambar-Shahdadkot Azfar Hussain, DSP Wahid Bakhsh, four policemen of Warah police station and eight members of the Chandio community.
Following the incident, enraged protesters blocked the National Highway and staged a demonstration and a sit-in outside the office of the regional police officer, Hyderabad and burnt tyres. They ended the protest when they were assured by DPO Jamshoro Farrukh Bashir of action against the police officials responsible.
Officials of Jamshoro police stations confirmed that the police team that raided Urs’s house belonged to another district and the team performed the swoop in a violation of the rules. “Making an entry in the record book of the police station concerned prior to such an execution is mandatory,” they explained.
Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah has ordered for an inquiry into the incident.
WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM WIRE AGENCIES
Published in The Express Tribune, December 11th, 2010.
One brother and two nephews of folk music singer Urs Chandio were killed when the police opened fire at their house during a raid Friday morning.
The police team from Waggan, Warah and Nasirabad towns of Kambar-Shahdadkot district conducted a raid at the house in Gharibabad, Jamshoro to arrest Urs Chandio.
The police climbed over the boundary wall and barged into the house. When they did not find Urs, they tried to arrest his relatives present in the house. On facing resistance, they opened fire, killing Urs’s brother Muhabat Ali, 28 and nephews Munir Ali, 25 and 16-year-old Irshad Ali. Meanwhile, Mashooq Ali Chandio, another brother of Urs Chandio, was critically injured and taken to Liaquat Medical College Hospital. The bodies were taken to Civil Hospital, Hyderabad.
When residents started gathering around the house, the police fled.
Urs Chandio told the media on the phone that he was in Lahore at the time of the raid and that the police had raided his house several times on the instigation of an influential landlord in Warah Town.
He said he had repeatedly appealed to the authorities for protection, which they had ignored. Fake cases have been registered against me, he added.
Meanwhile, Ali Muhammad Chandio, Urs’s elder brother, told reporters that about 20 police mobiles led by three DSPs had come for the raid.
Another relative, Anwar, told the Daily Express that there was a girl’s kidnapping case registered against Urs.
According to the Jamshoro police, an FIR has been registered against DPO Kambar-Shahdadkot Azfar Hussain, DSP Wahid Bakhsh, four policemen of Warah police station and eight members of the Chandio community.
Following the incident, enraged protesters blocked the National Highway and staged a demonstration and a sit-in outside the office of the regional police officer, Hyderabad and burnt tyres. They ended the protest when they were assured by DPO Jamshoro Farrukh Bashir of action against the police officials responsible.
Officials of Jamshoro police stations confirmed that the police team that raided Urs’s house belonged to another district and the team performed the swoop in a violation of the rules. “Making an entry in the record book of the police station concerned prior to such an execution is mandatory,” they explained.
Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah has ordered for an inquiry into the incident.
WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM WIRE AGENCIES
Published in The Express Tribune, December 11th, 2010.