PESHAWAR: Seven people, including six brothers, were killed when two groups clashed over a petty dispute involving children in the limits of Inqilab police station here late on Monday.

SP (Rural) Shaukat Khan told reporters that the clash took place between Bashir and Abdul Ghaffar groups over a dispute involving children.

He said that Bashir group opened fire on Ghaffar group, killing six people, including a child. He said that the group also killed one of its own members apparently for the purpose of filing cross FIR.

He said that police had taken accused identified as Malang and Sanaullah into custody and recovered two pistols, a kalakov and Kalashnikov from them. He said that police were striving to arrest other accused.

The incident took place in Matabachai village in Mera Surizai area on Peshawar’s outskirts at around 8pm and reported to police at around 10pm.

Abdul Ghaffar, head of the family which lost six of its members, told police that the accused identified as Subhan, Anwarullah, Riaz, Bashir, Amjad, Saifullah, Malang and Sanaullah opened fire on them after an exchange of hot words. He said that six of his sons identified as Rehmatullah, Inayatullah, Sharafat, Qadir, Javed and Niamatullah were killed, while Bakhtullah was injured in the firing.

He said that one of the accused, Noorullah, was killed by his own accomplices. Mr Ghaffar is an Afghan national and currently living in Matabachai village along with his family. The police have registered the case.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2018