PESHAWAR: Rivals nominate 20 in Friday’s shootout case
Bureau Report
PESHAWAR, May 17: Two rival parties have nominated 20 people in FIRs, separately registered with the Pishtakhara police station, in the Friday’s shootout which resulted into the death of six people over a land dispute in Nodeh Bala locality of the district.
The groups of Farhad Ali, resident of Nodeh Bala, and Salahuddin, resident of Sufaid Dheri, ran a dispute over the ownership of 74 kanal of land in the area.
On Friday evening, Salahuddin and his men were going to cultivate the land, when they were attacked by Farhad Ali and his men.
Mohammad Ayaz, son of Sabz Ali; his brother Salahuddin and son Abdul Haseeb; Sardar Ali, son of Hamraz; Farhad Ali and Khalid Khan, sons of Safdar Ali died in the crossfire, whereas Imtiaz and Haleem, were injured and shifted to the Lady Reading Hospital in critical conditions.
Soon after the incident, the local police rushed to the area and arrested 12 people of the two groups, but 10 of them were set free, except Imtiaz Ali and Haleem, as they were not charged in the FIRs.
Later, fear gripped the whole hospital when Atiq, a nephew of Salahuddin, snatched a gun from a police constable in the hospital and opened fire. He was overpowered by the policemen on duty. Nobody got hurt.
Sources in the police told Dawn on Saturday that Mohammad Ayaz was a senior vice-president of Habib Bank, and Salahuddin was an officer in the Pakistan Tourism Department Corporation.
Haji Sultan, son of Haji Ghulam Hussain, nominated 11 people of Nodeh Bala in the case. They included Sabir, Sadeeq, Haleem Shah, Mazhar Ali, Ikhwanullah, Rehman Gul, Bakhshish, Imtiaz, Kiramat Shah, Khalid and Farhad.
Imtiaz Ali, son of Hashim Ali, a resident of Nodeh Bala nominated nine people in the case. They included Sultan Hussain, Ehsanullah, Toor, Kako, Zahoor, Naeem, Sabir, Sardar and Salahuddin.
Tension prevailed in area as six bodies were laid to rest amidst tight security on Saturday.
Relatives of Salahuddin blamed the Pishtakhara police for negligence which led to the incident. They said that he had several times lodged complaints against the illegal possession of the land by Farhad Ali.
They claimed that the land was purchased by Mohammad Ayaz and Salahuddin some two years back, but Farhad was in illegal possession of it with the connivance of the local police.
