SANGHAR: Five police inspectors and their 10 subordinate personnel have been declared guilty of killing two suspects in custody in fake encounters at different places in Sanghar district on May 20.

Ali Hyder Roonjho and Soomar Mahar were shot dead by a police team and Sanghar SSP Zeeshan Shafique Siddiqui had claimed that the two men, wanted by police in some criminal cases, resisted their arrest in the Perumal area of Sanghar district. They and were eventually killed in the ensuing encounter and arms and ammunition were seized from them, he said. However, the bereaved families contested the police claim and held a series of protests along with civil society activists in many areas of the district.

The protest drive continued for a couple of weeks and was stopped when an inquiry into the matter was ordered by the chief minister. The SSP was suspended to facilitate the probe.

On June 20, the Additional Sessions Judge of Khipro, Inayatullah Bhutto, ordered registration of an FIR against the police team but it was not done by the SHO concerned.

The Roonjho and Mahar communities of the area along with the bereaved families recorded their statements before the inquiry team insisting that Ali Hyder and Soomar were arrested in a case of kidnapping of a trader in Khipro. They alleged that the police team took Ali Hyder to a place along Dosoo Wah (irrigation channel) in Perumal and Soomar Mahar to the Chabarlo locality in Jhol town to kill them in fake encounters on May 20.

On Thursday, the Shaheed Benazirabad SSP made the inquiry report public. It found inspectors Aalan Abbasi, Ishaq Sangrasi, Gulzar Marri, Zulfiqar Pahi and Shareef Jamali, along with their 10 subordinate personnel nominated by the bereaved families, guilty of extrajudicial killing of the two suspects. All the police officers and personnel have been sacked.

Speaking to the media, relatives of Ali Hyder Roonjho expressed their dismay over the clean chit given by the inquiry team to SSP Zeeshan Shafique Siddiqui.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2020