SUKKUR, June 18: Ten people, most of them Mehar tribesmen, were killed in a tribal clash in two villages falling in the jurisdiction of Habibkot police station on Tuesday.
Four members of the Jatoi tribe were also wounded in the gunbattle which lasted for two hours.
Both the tribes have been at odds for the last 18 months during which 20 people have lost their lives.
The fresh violence broke out when a group of Mehars sneaked into the Rajab Tarat village. They attacked and injured four Jatois — Sohrab, Wagan, Dhani Bux and Mumtaz — already on their ‘hit-list’.
The armed Jatois, who had taken up positions in bunkers around the village, retaliated with indiscriminate firing.
After two hours of fighting, 10 people were found dead in the Rajab Tarat village and the nearby Habibkot village. They were identified as Shah Mohammad Jagirani, Abdul Karim Mehar, Saeed, Gulzar, Fateh Mohammad, Irshad, Dilshad, Nisar, Pathan and Lal Shah.
The personnel of the law enforcement agencies did not intervene to stop the battle.
Later, a large number of Mehar tribesmen, after marching through the streets, blocked the Indus Highway and Sukkur-Larkana Road demanding custody of the bodies kept by the Jatois.
The Jatois, however, handed over the bodies to the police after negotiations with senior district officials.
No FIR was lodged till midnight.
According to a late night report, the police used tear-gas against thousands of Mehar tribesmen who staged demonstrations in Lakhi, Jahan Khan and Mehboob villages, in the jurisdiction of Lakhi police station.
The protesters, most of them armed with sophisticated weapons, were demanding that the police hand them over bodies of their kin.
To assist the police in controlling the situation, reinforcement from Sukkur and Shikarpur was called out and 20 checkposts were raised in the troubled area.
