SUKKUR: In the second such incident within a couple of months, four persons were found shot dead on Wednesday and their identities and addresses, written on paper slips, were put on each of the bodies.

The police said that all of them were shot in the head.

They took the bodies to the Ghotki Taluka Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

The bodies were dumped at a desolate space underneath a bridge near Saleemabad village of Mirpur Mathelo taluka of Ghotki district so as to ensure that they could not be spotted easily.

Officials at the Sarhad police station guessed that the victims might have been shot dead two to three days back.

They said they rushed to the spot after receiving the information from some people.

The contents of the paper slips gave the victims’ identities as Baitullah, son of Siraj Ahmed and Qari Mohammad Jahangir, son of Rab Nawaz, hailing from Dera Ghazi Khan, Punjab, and Abdul Rauf, son of Zahoor Ahmed, and Hafeezullah, son of Bashir Ahmed, belonging to Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The deceased persons were aged 25-35 years. Two of them carried CNICs, which verified their identities as mentioned on the paper slips.

The second such incident within almost two months in the area around Mirpur Mathelo caused panic and harassment on Wednesday. Media personnel and people of the area tried to raise questions over it when they came across Ghotki SSP Farrukh Lanjar at the crime scene.

However, he and other police officers evaded their questions.

An FIR of the incident was yet to be registered. The bodies were collected by the heirs on Thursday after receiving information about their loved ones from the Sarhad police.

On January 25, three bullet-riddled bodies were found dumped near Naukot village of Mirpur Mathelo taluka. Each of the bodies had a paper slip affixed on it to give their identity and address. A “message” written in Urdu overleaf read Ghaddari ki saza maut [the punishment for treachery is death].

The deceased were identified as Abdul Malik, son of Hazrat Khan (from Pindi Bhattian), Abubakar, son of Masud Ahmed Butt (Faisal­abad) and Yasir (Pakpattan).

Police investigation into the matter could only establish that the victims had been kidnapped months or weeks before. Their missing reports were lodged with the respective police stations. No clue to the killers has been found so far.

All of them were shot in the head somewhere else and their bodies were taken to the village and dumped.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2019