NAWABSHAH: A sub-divisional officer (SDO) of the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco), his brother and a nephew were gunned down in an attack that also left a six-year-old girl of the same family wounded in Chak No. 4 near 60-Mile, Nawabshah, on Thursday.

SDO Karim Bux, 50, his younger brother, Rasool Bux and nephew, Abdul Ghafoor, along with other relatives were visiting their ancestral graveyard in the Chak No. 4 village when armed men hiding in bushes ambushed them, the area police said, adding that the victims and assailants belonged to the Dahiri community.

The assailants might have levelled the score as Karim Bux Dahiri’s rivals believed that his family was responsible for the murder of their close relative, Ali Hyder Dahiri, during violence in the March 24, 2016 local government election, the police said. The victims, along with six-year-old Saba Parveen alias Khanzadi, were taken to the Peoples Medical University hospital where Karim Bux, Rasool Bux and Abdul Ghafoor were declared dead on arrival and Khanzadi, daughter of Rasool Bux, was admitted for treatment. The three bodies were handed over to the heirs after a post-mortem examination.

A hunt for the killers, who escaped after committing the crime, was under way, the police said, adding that an FIR of the incident was yet to be lodged by the bereaved family.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2018