May 05, 2008	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 28, 1429

GUJRAT, May 4: Four people, including three women, of a family were gunned down allegedly by their kin over a land dispute in Gill village, Lala Musa, late on Sunday.

According to a first information report lodged with Lala Musa Saddar police, Fakhar Saleem and his six accomplices shot dead Ali Raza, Rizwana Bibi, Khalida Perveen and Kaneez Bibi over a land dispute where the deceased had grown the wheat crop. Fakhar is brother-in-law of deceased Khalida.

The accused fled from the scene while police shifted the bodies to morgue for an autopsy.

It is the second major incident of murders in the last two days in the district, as earlier five people were shot dead in an ambush in Karim Dad village near Gujrat University on Friday.

The death toll in the Karim Dad village firing incident touched six as the body of one of the alleged assailants was found in the Aroop Town police station limits (Gujranwala) on Saturday.

On the report of Zafar Iqbal, the Jalalpur Jattan Saddar police registered a murder case against 16 people, including union council nazim Master Riaz, of Bhangranwala.

Aroop police found an unidentified body which was later identified as Mudassar of Bhangranwala, a nominated accused in the murder of five people of the Shahzad group. He was buried in his native village on Saturday night in the presence of a heavy police contingent of Gujrat.

Reports said Mudassar’s brother Ashraf had been gunned down along with five other people, including three brothers of Master Riaz, allegedly by Shahzad alias Shazadu near Kot Amir Hussain village in 2001.

Now, Mudassar was the member of the assailant group that shot to death five people of the rival party. Police are investigating whether Mudassar was killed in a retaliatory firing or received bullets of his own accomplices.

Sources said that police had arrested two nominated accused, Basharat and Raza, both residents of Bhangranwala.

The law and order situation in Gujrat has been deteriorating for the last one month and the Punjab government has not been appointing any district police officer here since the transfer of Mahmoodul Hassan Qureshi. Afzal Virk, headquarters SP, is working as the officiating DPO.

FLOUR SMUGGLING: The district food department seized some 800 flour bags from a private storage centre in Dinga on Sunday.

While a joint team of the food department and police also recovered around 150 flour bags from a truck at river Jhelum toll plaza in Sara-i-Alamgir. The flour bags were being smuggled to Rawalpindi from Gujrat.

Reports said that a food department team on a tip-off raided the private godown of Muhammad Afzal in Dinga and confiscated the illegally-stored flour bags. Dinga police have registered a case against the godown owner.

Similarly, the joint team of the food and police departments arrested truck driver Kamran and also recovered flour bags being smuggled to Rawalpindi.