LARKANA: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Qambar-Shahdadkot chapter, on Sunday condemned the killing of a woman and her son during a police raid on their house a day earlier, and demanded a high-level inquiry into the incident.

In a statement, Murad Pindrani, the district coordinator of the HRCP core group, said that the Wagan police on a hunt for the killers of an SHO broke into the house of Manzoor Solangi and opened firing, leaving his mother, Lasham Khatoon, 60, and brother, Chakar Solangi, 38.

He said the police department should not appreciate such kind of actions.

Mr Pindrani said that the HRCP had formed a three-member committee headed by him. The other members were Shakir Jamali, the HRCP member of the Sukkur task force, and Dildar Seelro, to hold an impartial inquiry into the episode, he added.

The committee would visit the police station, the bereaved family and other related people on Monday before compiling its findings. Meanwhile, the bereaved family and area residents continued a protest over what it claimed as gruesome murder by police on the pretext of raid to arrest suspects involved in attack on the Wagan police station and killing of its SHO on May 26.

The protesters, carrying the bodies of police firing victims, blocked Warah-Larkana Road and kept it closed for traffic until dawn on Sunday.

Qambar-Shahdakot SSP held negotiations with the protesters but they refused to disperse. After their night-long sit-in, Deputy Commissioner Asadullah Abro intervened and persuaded them to call off

their protest and bury the bodies. He assured them that justice would be restored to the victims’ families. The sit-in was then ended at dawn.

Larkana DIG Dr Aftab Pathan has constituted a three-member committee led by Shikarpur SSP Javed Soonharo Jiskani to hold a probe into the incident and submit the report within the next three days.

Published in Dawn, June 2nd, 2014