UMERKOT: The Mirpur­khas DIG along with Umerkot SSP and other police officers on Sunday persuaded the heirs, relatives and other community members of Ghansham Bheel, a labourer, to end their four-day protest sit-in against his murder and bury the body.

The police officers had to visit the bereaved family in Bhirkyo village near the Nabisar area of Umerkot as the protesters refused to bury the dead until his killers were arrested. The Bheel community had been holding protests in several other towns as well.

Ghansham Bheel, 27, was axed to death by three assailants who had barged into his house and the bereaved family named them as

Chaudhry Yaseen Jatt, Ghaman Bheel and Gamshan Bheel in the FIR lodged by the victim’s father Janwar Bheel at the Nabisar police station. While the main suspect, Yaseen Jatt, remained at large, the other two were arrested.

The protesters, carrying Ghansham’s body, continued their sit-in at Allah Wala Chowk in Kunri insisting arrest of Jatt.

On the assurance by the DIG and SSP that he would also be arrested as soon as possible, the Bheels ended their protest on Sunday evening.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who spoke to the bereaved family over phone, sympathised with them. He was quoted as telling them that he know at whose guest house the prime suspect was hiding.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf parliamentary party leader in the Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Shaikh also visited the bereaved family and assured them all possible help in this regard.

MITHI: A number of Bheel community members on Sunday held a protest demonstration at Kashmir Chowk here on Sunday to express solidarity with the bereaved family and condemn the indifferent attitude of the Kunri police.

Advocate Lajpat Soorani, Haimraj Bheel, Dino Bheel and other activists of the Bheel Alliance led the protest.

HYDERABAD: Qaumi Awami Tehreek (QAT) president Ayaz Latif Palijo and Awami Jamhoori Party (AJP president Vishnu Mal in their statements issued here earlier in the day condemned the indifferent attitude of the Umerkot police in the matter. They noted that not attention was being paid to the four-day long protest by the Bheel community.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2019