LAHORE, Dec 31: Members of a group allegedly involved in grabbing a piece of agriculture land tortured the Hadyara station house officer to death in Govind village on Saturday.

Inspector Muhammad Arshad (50) had gone to the village along with his subordinates after police were informed that a group was occupying the land.

Before more policemen reached the scene on an emergency call made by SHO’s subordinates, group members beat Arshad so hard that he died on way to the hospital.

Hadyara police inquiries showed that Asadullah Khan and his two fellows reached the village to construct a boundary on, what he claimed, his two-kanal land. He was about to start construction when his rivals led by Sardar Arain and his son Zaheer of Govind village reached there and stopped him from going ahead with construction.

Sardar, who was accompanied by dozens of villagers armed with sticks, claimed the land was his property. During an argument between the two sides, villagers punctured the tyres of Asadullah’s car, attacked him and his two fellows and made them flee the scene.

Asadullah, who is a retired army solider, complained to the police that some people were occupying his land. The Hadyara SHO reached the scene along with his three subordinates. He directed his subordinates to shift the punctured car to the police station, but the villagers did not allow the police to take away the car, exchanged words with the police and later attacked the policemen with sticks. The SHO suffered head injuries and fractures, while his subordinates fled the scene and alerted the police about the incident.

Arshad of Nankana district was shifted to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

An investigation wing police official said Arshad, a father of two, died of a deep head injury. He said police came to know that two a kanal land was allotted to Asadullah by the government as compensation for his land occupied by the Tarbela Dam, but Sardar was in possession of this land.

Deputy Inspector General (Operations) Ghulam Mehmood Dogar said the preliminary investigation showed that both parties claimed to be the owner of the two-kanal land and the matter was in the court. He said further investigation was under way and police were conducting raids to hunt down at least 30 people, including women, who attacked the SHO, adding that three key suspects had been taken into custody.

Soon after the incident, heavy police contingents were dispatched to the village. Police teams conducted raids in other villages of Burki and Hadyara to arrest the runaway suspects.

Arshad’s body was sent for an autopsy and a murder case was registered against 30 people.

SLAIN: A 62-year-old man was found murdered in his house in Shamnagar on Saturday.

Sanda police said neighbours found Khadim Hussain, father five daughters, dead with his throat slit open. He had been living alone in his house, as his three daughters were married and two others were living with their grandmother in Karachi. His wife passed away some time ago.

According to the police, circumstantial evidence suggested that more than one people entered the house before the incident.

Police registered a case against unidentified killer(s) on the complaint of Hussain’s son-in-law Shahbaz.