PESHAWAR, July 7: A resident of Nisata Hasanabad, a village in the outskirt of peshawar, has blamed the police for tampering with an inquiry report against the alleged killing of five persons over land dispute by rivals of the same locality.

Bakhtawar Shah told Dawn that on Dec 5, 2002 he wrote a letter to Justice Karamat Bhandari, apprising him of the situation. As a result the then IGP Saeed Khan nominated DSP Abbas Khan as the inquiry officer in the case.

The DSP in his inquiry report charged the rival group under sections 365-A, 302, 324, 452, 148 and 149 of the PPC. But the group somehow influenced the police through a resourceful relative and the DIG crime replaced the inquiry officer with another DSP.

The DSP avoided the arrest of the rival group members till the main accused Owais Anwar and Iqbal received bails before arrest, he said.