SUKKUR, May 20: A man was killed and five others, including two policemen, were injured when police allegedly opened fire on a mob of villagers who attacked a police station in Doda Pur town, 75 kilometres from Jacobabad on Monday, after police raided their village, Zor Garh, to recover a ‘kidnapped woman’.

Police recovered after the raid Ms Fatima, a resident of Hyderabad who was sold in marriage to a villager, and arrested four men and two women after receiving a tip-off about her presence in the village.

According to police sources, Zamir Hussain Bhutto, an estate manager of PML-N leader Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, reached the police station immediately after the raid and demanded the villagers be released but police refused.

Mr Bhutto reportedly exchanged hot words with DSP Zulfiqar Langah who had led the raiding party and left only to return with a mob of villagers who surrounded the police station, said the sources.

Police arrested Mr Bhutto to break up the protest but it enraged the protesters who responded with pelting stones at the police station. Police opened fire, seriously injuring Lal Bux alias Lali Brohi who was a watchman at Mumtaz Ali Bhutto’s bungalow in Doda Pur, said the sources.

Three villagers, Khan Mohammad Mangi, 13, Aftab Mangi and Majid Ali also suffered serious wounds in police fire and two policemen, Jurial Malghani and Babul Khatoo, were injured in the villager’s attack, said the sources.

Lal Bux died on way to Jacobabad civil hospital while Khan Mohammad Mangi was taken to a Larkana hospital in serious condition.

Later, Jacobabad SSP Zafar Iqbal Malik reached the Doda Pur police station and freed Zamir Bhutto while DIG of Larkana range Jawed Alam Odho placed under suspension DSP Langah and directed the SSP to hold an inquiry into the incident.

SSP Malik expressed regret over the incident at a hurriedly-called press conference at the police station and said that police had conducted the raid and recovered Ms Fatima after receiving reports about her presence in the village. She was kidnapped from Hyderabad a year ago, he added.

He said that a committee was being formed to probe whether police opened fire or not. If it proved policemen were guilty then cases would be registered against them, he said.

Qurban Ali Bhatti, a resident of Zor Garh, told journalists that they had bought Ms Fatima for Rs140,000 from Jan Mohammad Umrani and Nazeer Bhatti after which she was properly married to a villager. It was wrong to say she had been kidnapped, he said.

An elder of Brohi community Gul Sher Brohi rejected police’s version of the events and said the villagers were unarmed and protesting in a peaceful manner but police opened fire without provocation.

He alleged that police constable Jurial Malghani whose clan had a running dispute with Brohis fired straight at Lal Bux Brohi to take revenge from Brohis by taking advantage of the situation.

According to villagers, the SSP came to Doda Pur after Mumtaz Ali Bhutto talked to DIG of Larkana range and persuaded villagers to end the protest.

Doda Pur town was shut after the incident and police deployed additional force at the police station to face any untoward situation.