SUKKUR, March 18: A jirga on Friday imposed Rs1.2 million penalty on Sukkur police for killing a Jatoi tribesman and shooting at the body of his brother to make the murder look like an encounter. Police claimed on Jan 4 last year that they had shot down two criminals, Shah Dost Jatoi and his brother Kariman Jatoi in an encounter.

But the deceased brothers’ relatives rejected police claim. They told Sindh High Court, Sukkur bench, that Kariman Jatoi was taking home the body of his brother, Shah Dost Jatoi who was killed by someone else and his post mortem was carried out in the Civil Hospital, Khairpur, when Sukkur police arrested him.

They took him along with the dead body to katcha area in the jurisdiction of Bagarji police station near Sukkur, and shot him dead. They also fired some shots into the dead body of Shah Dost to make it look like an encounter, they said.

The Court then ordered registration a case against 46 police officials including the then DPO Ghulam Shabbir Shaikh.

The dispute, however, was resolved in a jirga conducted by an elder of Jatoi tribe Sobdar Jatoi at his residence in the date market, Sukkur.

Sobdar, after listening to both parties at length, declared police guilty of murder, and imposed on them a fine of Rs1.2 million. Police paid Rs600,000 on the spot and promised to pay the rest in a week’s time.

Under the decision the two parties would withdraw cases registered against each other from the courts. Joro Jatoi, brother of the deceased, a number of Jatoi tribesmen, DSP Abdul Samad Bullo, Akhtar Chandio, Inspector Jehangir Mahar, Masood Mahar, Ghulam Hussain Dahiri, and others attended the jirga.