DADU: Two villagers and five policemen were wounded in an armed clash that took place in Faqir Mohammed Birhamani village near Khairpur Nathan Shah town on Sunday.

There were conflicting accounts of the incident. The police said that they were attacked by some villagers during a raid carried out on a few houses in the village to arrest some murder suspects but the villagers claimed that the raiding party started looting inmates instead of searching for the wanted suspects.

SHO Qaim Khoso of the Rakun police station said that a police team was sent to the village on a tip-off that the suspects involved in the murder of Sikandar Qambarani, who was killed five days ago on Khairpur Nathan Shah-Borai link road. He said that as soon as the police party entered the village, the suspects tried to escape. The police team chased them but some villagers fired on it to help the suspects dodge the police, he added.

The SHO said that the police team had to return fire as the villagers had wounded five constables.

While the clash was continuing, five policemen and two villagers, Ali Akbar and Dilbar, were brought to the Dadu Civil Hospital for treatment of bullet wounds they had sustained. The condition of one policeman, Wazeer Ali, was stated to be serious.

Soon after the clash, a large number of villagers took out a rally and proceeded to the nearby section of the Indus Highway raising slogans against the police. They blocked the highway causing disruption in the flow of vehicular traffic for more than an hour.

Speaking to local reporters, Nadeem Ahmed Birhamani, who was leading the protesters, claimed that the police team did not have any search warrants. He alleged that instead of searching for suspects, the policemen trespassed the houses of innocent people, harassed and beat up women and resorted to looting cash, gold jewellery, clothes and other valuables from inmates. He said this provoked some of the affected families who put up strong resistance, leading to the clash.

He also claimed that the police took away at least 10 residents of the village. He alleged that the detained men were kept at different police stations and being subjected to torture. SHO Khoso later rejected Birhamani’s all allegations.

City DSP Rasool Bukhsh Siyal went to the venue of the protest and held negotiations with affected villagers in order to persuade them to clear the highway. The villagers agreed to end their protest after the DSP assured them that all innocent people would be released.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2017