SUKKUR: Fear of a renewed series of tit-for-tat attacks gripped different areas of Ghotki district on Tuesday after a youth was shot dead and police linked the murder with the recently settled tribal feud between the Sawand and Sundrani communities.

The over two years of hostility had been put to an end only in the first week of July this year. A ‘grand jirga’ had to be convened in Gohar Palace, Khangarh, to stop the bloodshed and destruction in a number of attacks and counter-attacks involving members of the two communities. No fewer than two dozen people from both sides had lost their lives.

The hostility had touched its peak when eminent educationist and researcher Prof Dr Ajmal Sawand was gunned down on April 7, 2023 in Kandhkot to avenge murders of several Sundranis in such attacks.

The ‘grand jirga’, presided over by senior politician and lawmaker Sardar Ali Gohar Mahar and keenly attended by almost all feudal lords, political figures and other elite from Ghotki district, had succeeded in persuading the rival sides to bury the hatchet. It had fixed and imposed heavy fines on each sides as blood money and compensation for the injured.

The truce was announced in front of several thousand people, mainly belonging to the Sundrani and Sawand communities.

First breach of truce

In what appeared to be the first murder after the July truce, a youth driving a motorcycle was waylaid and shot dead while he was passing through the Jado area along a link road leading to Ghotki on Tuesday.

Although police could not ascertain identities or number of the assailants, they strongly believed that the killers belonged to the Sawand community.

The police said that the victim, Siraj Sundrani, was on his way from Ghotki (city) to Qadirpur when he came under the gun attack. The assailants escaped from the area without facing any resistance from the victim’s community or police.

The incident rang an alarm bell as Sundranis started lining up their armed men for a matching response while Sawands were also seen preparing for any possible attack.

Reports from different areas of Ghotki suggested that groups of armed Sundranis and Sawands took up positions in their respective localities.

A vast area of Ghotki had turned highly tense till late in the evening.

Sawands face Rs20m fine

The grand jirga had held Sundranis responsible for 13 murders, including that of Prof Dr Ajmal Sawand. Sawands were found to have killed 11 of their rivals, including Advocate Noor Ilahi, a cousin of powerful feudal lord of the area Sardar Abid Khan Sundrani.

The blood money for Dr Sawand and Advocate Ilahi was fixed at Rs10m each.

Pronouncing the agreed upon ruling of the grand jirga, Sardar Ali Gohar Mahar had warned that any side found to have breached the settlement would be punished with a fine of Rs20m.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2024