MINGORA: A group of people from Guligram village here on Monday appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take notice of an incident occurred in Batora village, last month, in which eight of their men were injured by their rivals.

The villagers led by Hazrat Rehman, Mohammad Sherin and Barkat Ali were speaking at a news conference at Swat Press Club. They said that their rival group led by Bakht Zamin and Shahid Zamin initiated the clash during Friday prayers on June 17 as they were equipped with weapons and batons.

“When we went to the mosque for Friday prayers the rival group started beating our men and then started firing as we were empty handed. In the indiscriminate fire the rival group’s leader, Bakht Zamin, was also injured, who later succumbed to injuries in hospital,” said Hazrat Rehman, adding, “Eight people from our side were injured in the fire.”

He said that soon after the incident people from the rival group went to police station and filed case against us after hiding their weapons. “After filing false case they went to media and gave false information against us,” he said.

Hazrat Rehman urged the media to properly investigate the matter to bring forth the truth.

He said that their enmity traced back to 2006 when Shamsul Qamar, father of Bakht Zamin, was shot dead by unknown persons during the night, ‘but they made false allegation against us’.

“Since 2006 they attempted to kill people from our side but failed. They even complained to Taliban courts during Swat insurgency, but Taliban also failed to prove guilt against us,” said Hazrat Rehman.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2016