SUKKUR: Normality returned to Ghotki district on Thursday after two days of closure, observed over a sacrilege incident in Daharki on Tuesday and the murder of a Hindu youth in Mirpur Mathelo the following day.

The two incidents had caused communal tension across the district but saner elements within the two communities played their due role in defusing it. Local leaders of Muslim organisations called off their agitation over sacrilege while the Hindu Punchayat leaders restrained their followers from playing in the hands of conspirators out to destroy centuries-old communal harmony in Sindh.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz MNA Dr Darshan Lal on Thursday visited the families of Sheetan Kumar (not Sateesh Kumar as was reported earlier), who was killed in an armed attack by unknown suspects, and his companion, Avinash, who was wounded in the attack.

The MNA told them that he had recommended to the provincial government a fair investigation into the attack and exemplary punishment to the culprits.

MNA Lal said both victims were his close relatives and belonged to poor families. He said he had already spoken to the Rangers director general, Sindh IGP, Sukkur DIG and Ghotki SSP to apprise them of the whole episode and ask them to ensure protection to the life and property of Hindu community members.

He said that the under custody sacrilege suspect, Amar Lal, was stated to be an insane person who had earlier embraced Islam. Therefore, he said, his Islamic name should be ascertained and mentioned in the FIR.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2016