HYDERABAD: A man who was believed to have strangled his five children to death on Jan 9 in a Matiari district village was gunned down in what was described as an encounter with police on Bheel Mori near Hala Bypass late on Friday night.

Hala police said the suspect, Ali Nawaz Leghari, apparently insane, was shot when he was taken into custody but snatched a rifle from a policeman and tried to flee.

Leghari, 45, a tractor driver and labourer, had reportedly strangled his five children — Mukhtiar Hussain, 9, Zameer Hussain, 5, Shabbir Hussain, 7, Sumaira, 4, and Hasina 13 — to death using a rope at his home in Deegano Goth near Saeed Khan Leghari village, some 50 kilometres from here. Initial investigations suggested that Lehari was inclined to practising black magic to overcome poverty and make fortunes.

His wife, Sabhagi Leghari, and elder son, 16-year-old Sabir Hussain, were not at home when he found the opportunity to sacrifice the five children. He fled the house after committing the crime and police were after him since then.

On Saturday, Matiari SSP Amjad Shaikh told the media that the CIA police had received a tip-off about the uspect’s presence in a locality in Tando Allahyar district. The police team rushed to the specified locality and arrested him, he added.

“The suspect was being taken to the Hala police station in a mobile van but when the vehicle reached at Bheel Mori near Hala Bypass, he managed to snatch a rifle from one of the escorting policemen and jump out of the moving vehicle,” the SSP said. The police officer claimed that the police team warned him against any attempt to flee but he fired at the police team. “The police team returned fire killing him on the spot,” the SSP further claimed.

The suspect’s body was taken to the Hala Civil Hospital for a post-mortem examination and then handed over to the heirs.

An FIR was registered at the Hala police station. The SSP said that the suspect’s wife and son initially refused to take his body but were convinced by police to do so.

Published in Dawn January 25th , 2015

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