HYDERABAD, March 18: The central leaders of the Khaskheli Jamaat have demanded the immediate arrest of the killers of Altaf Hussain Khaskheli of Mirpurkhas district.

They accused Mirpurkhas police of taking bribe from the accused for providing them opportunity to seek pre-arrest bail.

They were speaking at a news conference at Hyderabad press club here on Monday.

The mother and grandmother of the deceased were also present.

The community leaders said that the main accused Seth Ghulam Rai was a big landlord and a factory owner and had police patronage.

They said that village Obhayo Khaskheli had been besieged by cronies of another accused Seth Gobind Ram, nobody was allowed to come out of the village and even its water supply had been stopped.

Demanding arrest of Gobind, Seth Leela Ram, Seth Gul alias Gulab Rai, Seth Hoat Chand and their manager Nazar Mohammad Leghari, who were nominated accused in the murder case, they appealed to the authorities to provide protection to the members of Khaskheli community.

They also demanded that SP, investigation, Mirpurkhas, Abdul Quddoos Shaikh, and official in charge, Mirwah Gorchani, Imam Ali Samoon, should be dismissed from service and a judge of high court should be appointed to conduct the inquiry into the murder.

They said that the murder case had already been disposed of as undetected due to the influence of Gulab Rai and former member of the parliament Kishan Das Parvani, Hari Ram Keshori Lal and Seth Lachman Das. They said that inquiry should also be held against them.

They said that the chief of Khaskheli community Ghulam Mustafa Khaskheli, who was also Nazim of taluka Samaro, had been falsely implicated in the murder case 18 days after the incident and demanded that he should be exonerated.

Answering a question, the mother and grandmother of the deceased also said that Ghulam Mustafa had nothing to do with the murder.

Those who spoke at the news conference included Mohammad Saleem Khaskheli, Haji Noor Ahmed Khaskheli and over one dozen others.