SUKKUR: Enraged relatives of a van driver, who was gunned down by dacoits on Thull road near Tangwani town in Kandhkot-Kashmore district, early on Monday morning, set a check-post on fire during protest against police’s failure to protect lives of innocent citizens across the district.

Witnesses said the van driver, Yaqoob Buriro, died instantly when the dacoits opened indiscriminate fire on the vehicle near Saifal Stop on Thull road after he ignored their signal to stop and tried to speed through their cordon. The dacoits had blocked the road to rob motorists and commuters in the morning.

The victim’s relatives took the body to civil hospital and then brought it back to the Thull road after completion of medico-legal formalities. They placed the body in the middle of the road and blocked it for vehicular movement in protest against police.

The protest was also joined by members of transport association and political and social activists during which some unknown protesters set the check-post near Saifal Stop ablaze.

The protesters’ leaders Hamidullah Marri, Raham­dil Lashari, Waqar Ahmed and others said that criminals appeared from riverine area and committed crime at their whim without fear of police.

They said that the district had been under dacoits’ rule, and no one was ready to control the criminals, who committed a horrific act in front of the check-post, killed the van driver and easily escaped from the crime scene.

They demanded high authorities should get the dacoits arrested and bring the driver’s killers to justice. The outlaws ruled the district and police had failed to maintain writ of the state, they said, adding that the gangsters had killed two citizens during 12 hours and police were nowhere to be seen.

Meanwhile, DSPs Ghulam Sarwar Buriro and Sardar Chandio talked to the protesters and persuaded them to end the protest on assurance that police would arrest the killers soon.

Extortionists kill labourer

A group of armed men opened fire at a warehouse in broad daylight and wounded a labourer, Adam Sheikh, who later died in hospital, on Sunday when a grain trader, Beerbal Das, refused to pay them protection money.

People rushed the labourer to civil hospital in critical condition but doctors referred him to a major hospital in Sukkur district. However, the labourer could not survive the gunshot wounds and succumbed to injuries.

The relatives brought back the body to the hospital for completion of medico-legal formalities and then took it to Gola More where they staged a sit-in on the road in protest against police failure to take action against the extortionists.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2025