SUKKUR: The gang-infested riverine area of Ghotki reverberated with deafening sound of heavy gunfire for hours on Thursday as trigger-happy dacoits belonging to the dreaded Shar gang rejoiced removal of Tanveer Hussain Tunio as the district’s SSP.

The celebration kicked off with the ‘welcome’ message to the incoming SSP, Munir Ahmed Khuhro, from the gang’s ringleader Ranu Shar on the social media.

The message was meant not only for his gang members but also for the Sindh police. Besides expressing his pleasure over SSP Tunio’s transfer from Ghotki, Ranu Shar appeared sure that the incoming SSP would relax or even stop the ongoing operation against his gang. The ringleader also threatened to intensify criminal activities if the incoming SSP followed in the footsteps of his predecessor so far as the anti-dacoit operation was concerned.

“If the newly-appointed SSP continued the operation against my gang, then police will not be able to stop us from intensifying our activities across the district,” warned Ranu Shar in his message.

Riverine area reverberates with gunfire sound during hours-long celebration

Police reports regarding achievements in the battle against criminal gangs in the district suggested that the Shar gang – said to be the most dreaded one among scores of such gangs operating in Ghotki and parts of adjoining districts — had been under immense police pressure over the last few months.

During his almost 18 months of command, SSP Tunio’s force killed more than 45 gangsters, including several most-wanted ones, according to the police report. The SSP got over 60 check-posts built along the CPEC route in the district and along the Indus embankments to block gangsters’ free movement between their hideouts (within the riverine areas) and cities, towns and villages, effectively controlling kidnapping for ransom, murder, dacoity, highway robbery and other such heinous crimes.

Ranu Shar, addressing SSP Munir Ahmed Khuhro, justified the armed attacks, kidnappings and murders on the part of his gang by arguing that his (Shar) community had longstanding disputes with members of other communities, tribes and clans in the upper Sindh areas. “If the SSP helps settle these dispute, I and my gang will be ready to surrender ourselves before the police,” he said. He proposed holding of an ‘open kachehry’ for the purpose to give all these rivals a hearing and resolve the disputes once and for all.

Tribal clash leaves two dead

An armed clash between rival groups belonging to the Jatoi tribe left two men dead in the Rustam taluka of Shikarpur district on Thursday.

The deceased were identified as Yaseen Jatoi and Ali Bakhsh Jatoi. The bodies were taken to the Rustam Taluka Hospital for a post-mortem examination before they were handed over to the heirs.

Police and area residents said that the two sides engaged in a quarrel before attacking each other with firearms.

They said such clashes between them had been occurring intermittently over the last two years.

The hostility has already claimed lives of more than 58 people, including eight women and three children, according to them.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2023