SUKKUR, Jan 15: Three persons of the same family were killed and two others were injured in the Jam Sahib village, Nawabshaw district, on Wednesday morning.

According to the Nawabshah DPO, about 50 persons were on the way to a polling station when armed men of the rival group intercepted them.

After an exchange of hot words between the two groups, the armed men opened fire, killing Karam Ali Shar, Maher Ali Shar and Rahib Shar and injuring Rajar Shar and Ramzan Shar.

The DPO confirmed to Dawn on telephone that it was an election-related violence. The Khairpur DPO said the incident was not related to the election.

Khairpur District Nazim Nafeesa Shah has blamed the district police for hiding the facts and said the ruling party was involved in the incident.

Earlier, speaking at a press conference, PPP leaders Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Syed Khurshid Ahmad Shah said the people who were killed were the supporters of Syed Ahmad Raza Shah, the party candidate for NA-216.

They said these people did not know about the PPP’s boycott of the election and were coming to cast their votes.

Our Nawabshaw correspondent adds: The injured were taken to the People’s Medical College Hospital (PMCH), Nawabshah. The bodies were also shifted to the PMCH for postmortem.

The injured Ramzan Shar told Dawn that activists of the PML-F, who were in cars, opened fire on them while they were going to the polling station. He said they also kidnapped some voters.