SUKKUR: Over 170 people were booked on Sunday for invading Narch village, dominated by Kalhoro tribesmen, near Sangi town on Friday night.

The invaders riding scores of motorcycles had stormed their way into the village and resorted to indiscriminate firing on several houses purportedly to avenge alleged kidnapping of a woman belonging to the Mahar community. Two youths were killed and several other people were wounded in the attack. The invaders had also taken away two women and a girl with them and held them hostage for hours. In subsequent police raids in Raza Goth, situated in the riverine area, the hostages were recovered from a hideout.

The Sangi police, on a complaint lodged by a nephew of Ghulam Murtaza Kalhoro, one of the deceased victims, registered the FIR against 34 nominated and 140 unknown suspects under murder, terrorism, kidnapping and other charges.

The complainant said that the attackers had also threatened the bereaved family and other community members of dire consequences.

Eight suspects rounded up for investigation into violent reaction to woman’s ‘abduction’

Sources in the two villages said that the violent reaction from the Mahars living in Raza Goth was linked with the disappearance of a woman belonging to their community. The Mahars believed that she had been abducted by a youth belonging to the Kalhoro family to contract a freewill marriage. Some residents of Narch village, however, claimed that the woman had left her family for a freewill marriage.

The Sangi police on Sunday evening said they had detained eight of the suspects involved in the village invasion.

Sukkur SSP Sanghar Malik told the media that a hunt for other nominated and unknown suspects was under way.

He said that the Kalhoro man and Mahar woman at the centre of the whole episode remained untraced. “Their mobile phones are found switched off,” he added.

He said police would ensure their safety and security if it was really a matter of freewill marriage.

Kidnapped boy remains untraced

An eight-year-old boy, Abdul Samad, son of Irshad Sheikh alias Haji Khan, a vegetable seller, could not be recovered till Sunday evening, 20 days after he was kidnapped from near his parents’ house in the Sasti Basti locality of Sukkur.

Mr Sheikh had lodged a report at the Abad police station soon after his son went missing. According to him, he had twice received Rs2.5 million ransom demand a few days after the kidnap incident and he had shared the caller’s mobile phone number with the police.

He said he was in constant touch with senior police officers of the city since then but they could not help recover his son. He appealed to the chief minister and provincial police chief to get his son recovered as he was a poor person and had a big family to feed. He said he could not meet the kidnappers’ demand of the huge ransom.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2023