July 14, 2008	Monday	Rajab 10, 1429

NAWABSHAH, July 13: A boy was killed and three other people were injured in an attack following over a dispute between two groups over irrigation water near Doulatpur on Sunday.

The groups comprise supporters of the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Q.

Fida Hussain Dahiri, 14, son of Mumtaz Dahiri, a PML-Q backed union council nazim, was killed on the spot and his brother Zilqad and peasants Ali Mohammed and Liaquat Dahiri suffered injuries, allegedly after PPP supporters opened fire on them in the presence of police in Deh Noor Ahmed ja Quba near Doulatpur.

The injured were taken to a hospital in Moro from where they were referred to the Nawabshah Medical College Hospital.

Talking to journalists at the NMCH, Zilqad said that they were irrigating their fields when Special Assistant to Sindh Chief Minister Ismail Dahiri, his brothers Asghar, Raza Mohammad, Hassan, Faisal and a number of armed men attacked them in the presence of Doulatpur, Pubjo and Shahpur Jehanian police and opened straight fire, killing Fida on the spot and injuring others.

He said that the attack was aimed at stopping them from supporting PML-Q leader Khan Mohammed Dahiri and coercing them into joining the Ismail Dahiri group.

He alleged that Ismail Dahiri had registered fabricated FIRs against them over the past three months, levelling water theft and other allegation. He termed it a sheer act of political victimisation.

The injured demanded that the Sindh police chief and the Hyderabad DIG should take notice of the excesses and direct police to register a case against the culprits and the police.

Mumtaz Dahiri said that he had filed a constitutional petition in the Sindh High Court against Ismail Dahiri and the government of Sindh.

He said that Ismail accompanied by his bothers and 100 men had come to his village Nim on Saturday but had to return after failing to find him. On Sunday morning, Ismail with his brothers, a large number of armed men and a heavy contingent of police again came to his lands and opened fire on his family members who were watering the land, he said.

Mumtaz later lodged an FIR alleging that Asghar, Ali Raza, Mohammed Ibrahim, Moula Bux, Suleman, Haji Hyder, Sher Ali, Akbar, Ismail and nine others attacked his family members with clubs and axes at the instigation of Ismail Dahiri, special assistant to Sindh chief minister.

Ismail Dahiri denied his involvement in the attack insisting that he had been in Karachi for last two days.