JHANG, July 26: Five people were murdered and five others injured, four of them seriously, when they were ambushed by their rivals in Bhowana town of Chiniot tehsil at about 6pm on Wednesday, 48 kilometers from here.

Zafar Jappa, a resident of Noshera locality in the vicinity of Bhowana, received an anonymous phone call demanding Rs200,000 from him as forced (jagga) tax. He suspected Nawaz of their rival Chaddar tribe to be the caller. Nawaz and other members of the tribe rejected the allegation and offered to prove their innocence before a panchayat. A notable of the area, Qalandar Shah, arranged the panchayat, which was to meet at Dera Roshan Shah in Mochi Mohallah, Bhowana, on Wednesday evening.

As the members of Chaddar tribe were coming to attend the panchayat, some members of the Jappa group, led by proclaimed offender Gulzari Jappa, wanted by police in a number of murder cases, came out of a mosque where they were hiding, and opened indiscriminate firing on them killing Najeebullah, Aqeel Haidar s/o Nawaz Chaddar, Amanullah and Asad on the spot.

A six-year-old boy, Ali Sheraz, who was shot in the head, died in the Bhowana RHC. Five others, Ghulam Shabbir, Haq Nawaz, Afzal, Nasir and Zafar, sustained injuries. Zafar was being treated at the Bhowana RHC, while the remaining four injured were shifted to the Allied Hospital, Faisalabad, in serious condition.

According to a Chaddar tribe source, Nawaz had leased out his agricultural land to the Ramzan Sugar Mills near Bhowana. The mills administration had a few months ago, received a similar phone call for the payment of tax, allegedly from Zafar Jappa.

When the millers did not pay the amount, the Jappa torched a tractor owned by the mills, while ploughing the fields of Nawaz.

The incident became a cause of tension between the two traditionally rival tribes of the area and there was an exchange of harsh words between Nawaz Chaddar and Zafar Jappa near Adda Jamiabad.

Senior police officials had arrived at the crime scene and several police parties had been sent out to hunt the assailants. No arrest has so far been reported.

HANGED: Chand Younis of Chak 361 GB of Gojra tehsil was hanged in the district jail here on Wednesday morning.