SUKKUR, Dec 21: A dispute over a matrimonial alliance triggered an armed clash in Atal Muradani village within the remit of the Sarhad police station on Friday left the bride and her young cousin dead and another three women injured. One of the injured women was stated to be in a critical condition.

Reports from the area suggested that the marriage of a Solangi clan woman, Rabia, daughter of Mohammad Ibrahim, was solemnised on Friday night with a member of Mahar clan, Sahib, son of Ramzan Mahar. Some people belonging to the Solangi clan, who had already been opposing the matrimonial alliance, continued to raise their objections during the Nikah on Thursday night but the ceremony concluded without any untoward incident. However, a group of Solangi clansmen carrying arms came to the house of Mohammad Ibrahim and took up with him the matter of his daughter’s marriage. Ibrahim’s other family members and close relatives also joined in.

During the course of an exchange of views, both the sides indulged in heated arguments and finally the visiting clansmen brandished their guns, prompting the other side to counter the attack.

Sources said that the bride, Rabia, 20, and her sister-in-law (brother’s wife), Zohran Solangi, 30, sustained fatal bullet wounds.

Samia Solangi and Darya Khatoon Solangi and an unidentified woman also received gunshot wounds in the shoot-out. The bodies and injured victims were taken to the Ghotki Civil Hospital in Mirpur Mathelo town.

Darya Khatoon and the unidentified woman were admitted to hospital while Samia Solangi was referred to a hospital in Rahimyar Khan due to her precarious condition. Doctors at the Ghotki Civil Hospital said that a bullet had pierced through the throat of Samia.

Sources in the village said that Solangis and Mahars maintained cordial relations and the matrimonial alliance was not also controversial until the date for the Nikah was finalised.

They said something went wrong some days before the marriage took place.

Meanwhile, the bodies of Rabia Solangi and Zohra Solangi were handed over to the heirs after a post-mortem examination performed at the Ghotki Civil Hospital.

No FIR of the incident was registered till late Friday evening.

Three men kidnapped

Three members of the Ogahi clan were kidnapped by a gang of armed men, said to be members of the rival Teghani clan, on Friday.

The victims, Farooque, Abdul Karim and Shah Mir Ogahi, were working in the fields owned by Hakim Khan Mori within the remit of the Katcha Keti police station near Ghouspur town when the armed men took them away.

A large number of Ogahi clansmen along with the area police tried to track down the kidnappers with the help of their footprints but in vain.