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| 16 May 2004 | Sunday | 25 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425 |
18 dead as rivals clash near Gujrat
GUJRAT, May 15: An armed clash between two groups left around 14 people dead and 50 injured near Madina Syedan village on Saturday night. However, hospital sources claimed that 18 people had died. According to reports reaching here, Chaudhry Ishtiaq alias Shaqi of Gandhra had tried to occupy a house of Kakay Shah in Madina Syedan two days ago.
Shaqi allegedly set the house to fire when the inmates put up resistance. He and his men also misbehaved with female inmates.
The residents of Madina Syedan were outraged by Shaqi's excesses.
However, a PML-Q Naib Nazim Syed Fazeelat Shah of Madina Syedan attempted to broker a reconciliation between Shaqi and Kakay Shah.
He called a Panchayat of area elders where the two were present along with their supporters numbering 300.
During the Panchayat proceedings, the rivals traded harsh words.
Shaqi and his companions came out from the outhouse of Fazeelat Shah and started firing shots in the air on Madina Syedan road.
Crossfire between the two groups started at around 8.30pm which continued for more than two hours.
As a result, 14 members of both the groups died while more than 50 people, including passers-by, sustained injuries.
Thirteen of the dead were identified as Chaudhry Ishtiaq alias Shaqi of Gandhra, Chaudhry Mumtaz alias Bila Marrarr Puria, Chaudhry Nadeem, Mukhtiar Ahmad, Tariq Muna, Syed Ajmal Shah, Wasif Haleem, Ashfaq, Imran, Abbas, Saeed Ahmad Shah, Ilyas and Dullay Shah.
Gujranwala range DIG Altaf Qamar, Gujrat DPO Raja Munawar Hussain and DSP Headquarters Mahmood ul Hasan Qureshi reached the spot.
Police shifted the dead bodies as well as the injured to the Gujrat DHQ Hospital where another exchange of fire between relatives of the two groups took place.
An emergency was declared in the hospital by the district administration.
One of the dead, Shaqi, was a proclaimed offender in a case of expatriates' killing in Lalamusa.
Police has intensified patrol on Madina Syedan and its adjoining roads to avert any further untoward incident. The situation in the area, particularly in the hospital, was tense at the time of filing of this report.
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