UMERKOT: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf MNA Lal Malhi, who has been running a campaign for the arrest of the killers of two brothers in the city on July 28, and the complainant of the incident, Suresh Kumar Malhi, have rejected police claim that the prime suspect of the double murder was shot dead in an encounter.

Heera Lal Malhi and Ashok Kumar Malhi, reportedly carrying around Rs500,000, were shot dead on their way back home after closing their confectionery shop.

The MNA and the local Hindu community believe the killing was part of a wider conspiracy to harass its members while the police insist that it was purely a criminal case.

While there has been no clue yet to the killers, the Mirpurkhas DIG on Tuesday claimed that the dacoit, Obhayo Nohari, who was killed in an encounter with police, was the prime suspect in the case.

Rejecting the claim, MNA Malhi and Suresh Kumar Malhi argued that Nohari’s name never surfaced during the high-level inquiry into the incident. Nohari was a policeman before he was sacked for being involved in criminal activities and most people in Umerkot knew him by name and by face and none of the witnesses named him as a suspect in the double murder case, they explained.

They alleged that the police were trying to close the case file by declaring Nohari the prime suspect.

The MNA termed the police claim an attempt to save the killers.

He regretted that Umerkot SSP Abdul Qayyum Pitafi had still not been removed though the investigation team led by DIG Sanaullah Abbasi had a couple of weeks ago recommended his removal on account of negligence leading to the murders.

MIRPURKHAS: Earlier in the day, DIG Dr Mohammad Amin Yousufzai told a press conference that Allah Dino Obhayo Nohari was shot dead along with one of his companions during an encounter with police in a garden located between Naokot and Jhuddo. Nohari was the prime suspect in the July 28 incident of two brothers’ murder in Umerkot, he said.

Umerkot SSP Abdul Qay­yum Pitafi and Mirpurkhas SSP Jam Zafarullah Dharejo were present at the press conference held in the Police Complex.

The DIG said that Nohari had been recruited in the Sindh Reserve Police, Hyderabad, as constable in 1986 and sacked in 2011 for his involvement in criminal activities. Since then he had been kidnapping people, particularly members of the minority communities, for ransom, the DIG said.

He claimed that acting upon a tip-off a raid was conducted on a garden near Fazal Bhambhro village where Nohari and his three accomplices were present. The police ordered them to surrender but they opened fire, which was returned, the DIG said, adding that Nohari and one of his accomplices were killed in the encounter while two other criminals managed to escape.

He said the man killed along with Nohari was yet to be identified.

A Kalashnikov, a pistol and a big quantity of ammunition were seized from the suspects, the DIG said.

He said Nohari was wanted by the police in 23 cases of heinous crimes registered against him in Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Umerkot, Badin, Tando Mohammad Khan, Tando Allahyar and Hyder­abad districts. He carried a tag of Rs1 million, he added.

Meanwhile, a resident of Deh Sangro of Shujaabad taluka, Umed Ali Leghari, told the media that the alleged suspect killed by the police along with Nohari was his son, Umer Leghari.

He claimed that Nohari had been living in Mehran Colony for the past few days and a police team led by the Mirpurkhas SSP arrested him in a raid on Monday. The team also arrested Umer Leghari and took both of them to a place near Naokot, where they were shot dead in a fake encounter, he alleged.

Umed Leghari said he was leaving for Naokot to collect his son’s body.

Published in Dawn, September 10th , 2014