SHEIKHUPURA/LAHORE, May 8: Thirteen people, seven of them members of one family, were killed in two incidents of violence, one in a village in Sheikhupura, and the other in Raiwind. There were three children among seven members of a family, who were gunned down early on Monday morning as they slept in their house in the Maddar village, about 10 kilometres from Sheikhupura.
Four other children were seriously injured in the firing that police blamed on an old feud between Arain and Mochi families.
The injured children were taken to Lahore’s Mayo Hospital.
In Raiwind, six people were killed when firing erupted during a meeting held to settle a property dispute.
Police related the Sheikhupura village firing incident to the murder of Ghulam Farid, a member of the Arain family, allegedly by Allah Ditta of the Mochi family about two and a half years ago.
They said that members of the Arain family, including Mohammad Malak, Liaqat Ali, Riasat Ali, Bashir Ahmad, Azeem Ahmed, Amanat Ali and Abida Bibi, who were fully armed, stormed Allah Ditta’s house at around 3am and opened fire killing six people and severely injuring another who later died in hospital.
Sheikhupura District Police Officer Aslam Tareen told Dawn that the main accused in the case had been arrested.
He said that both the families had been involved in legal battles and had filed several FIRs against each other.
The inspector-general of police has ordered an inquiry into the incident and praised his men for arresting the culprits.
About the Raiwind incident, SP Imran Arshad said that the six people were killed in a firing in Mandar Abbas between two groups — the Sindhus and Rajputs — both of whom had laid claim over four and a half acres of land, which originally belonging to the Evacuee Trust Property Board. He said that one of the groups had wanted to sell the land to a housing society while the other wanted to build a school on the plot.
Town Nazim Sardar Omar Kamil had convened a meeting to settle the dispute and around 500 men belonging to both the groups had assembled there.
The SP said the police had not been informed about the meeting attended by such a large number of people.
A gunbattle erupted after men from both the groups exchanged harsh words, he said.
Chaudhry Naimat Sindhu and his gunman Mohammad Arif and Haji Faqir Mohammad, his son Sakhawat and Akbar Khan and Sharafat Ali of the other group as well as three others, Arshad, Bhola and Akhtar, were severely injured.
The injured were taken to nearby hospitals, and two of them died on the way to the Jinnah Hospital. Four others died after receiving some treatment.
The condition of two other injured men was stated to be serious.
The bodies of the deceased were taken to the city mortuary for autopsies.
No case has so far been registered.
A police force had been deployed to avert any further violence.
