TOBA TEK SINGH: With the murder of its last male member, Abdul Rehman Jatt, the saga of family of former MNA of Gojra, the late Chaudhry Ilyas Jatt, seems to have reached its tragic end with most of the male members being killed due to enmity.

Abdul Rehman Jatt, the nephew of Ilyas Jatt, was allegedly murdered near Chak 66-JB Dhandra in the Thikriwala Police Station area of Faisalabad two days back. He was an independent candidate for PP-108 in the last general election and had supported PML-N’s Rana Sanaullah against the PTI’s Dr Nisar Jutt, the husband of his cousin, for NA-106 slot.

In the first information report, his sister Sidra alleged that her brother Abdul Rehman had political rivalry with Dr Nisar since the last election and that he would also hurl life threats at her brother. She stated that Dr Nisar, along with his accomplices, attacked his brother near Moti Sain shrine at Chak 65-JB when he was on his way to Sheikhupura and killed him. Police booked former Dr Nisar and seven of his accomplices for the murder.

Most men of political family were murdered over enmity

In the earlier FIR, registered on complaint from Dr Nisar’s side, Rehman had attacked Dr Nisar and his guards in which two police guards were killed while Rehman was killed in retaliatory fire.

The family has a sad history of enmities and murders. There was a three decades old enmity between the families of former MNA Ilyas Jatt and Amjad Warraich, also a former MNA from Gojra, which had taken lives of dozens of persons from both sides. It forced Ilyas Jatt to leave Chak 364-JB of Gojra and settle in Chak 66-JB, Dhandra, of Faisalabad from where he had won election for the MNA seat on a PPP ticket in 1993. He could not take part in 2002 election due to graduation condition and he introduced his son-in-law Dr Nisar in politics. Dr Nisar was elected as MNA in 2002 but in 2008 he lost the election; however, he again won as MNA on PML-N ticket in 2013. After Ilyas’s death in 2015, Dr Nisar contested for the National Assembly seat in 2018 on the PTI ticket but was defeated by Rana Sanaullah of the PML-N.

One of the reasons behind his defeat was stated to be Abdul Rehman’s alliance with Rana Sana as he (Rehman) was an independent candidate for the provincial assembly seat from the same NA constituency.

On the other hand, Abdul Rehman was also facing enmity of the Warraichs (which he had inherited from his uncle, Ilyas Jatt, and father Saeed Jatt). This enmity resurfaced this year on May 25 after a four-year pause since the death of Ilyas when PTI Gojra MPA Bilal Asghar Warraich was attacked in his own house in which one of his close aides was murdered.

In the FIR, the late Abdul Rehman Jatt was accused of abetment in the attack.

After the murder of Rehman now there is no other male in Ilyas Jatt’s family; however, his vote bank would used in future by his son-in-law Dr Nisar.

Rehman’s murder is likely to end the enmity between Warraich and Jatt families as there is no male in the latter to confront the Warraichs.

Ilyas Jatt had three brothers who were all murdered. They were Saeed Jatt (Rehman’s father), Azam Jatt and Naeem Jatt. Saeed was murdered by their opponents, Azam was killed by a foreigner in Germany after a quarrel in a club while Naeem was killed by Okara police when did not stop his car at a picket. Only Ilyas and Saeed were married. Ilyas had one daughter, now wife of Dr Nisar while Saeed had one son, Rehman, and two daughters.

The Jatt’s enmity with the Warraichs had taken dozens of lives of both the groups. Those murdered also included Ilyas Jatt’s father Chaudhry Bashir Ahmad Jatt and his brother Saeed Jatt while Amjad Warraich’s father ex MPA Ali Asghar Warraich and his brother for DSP Haq Nawaz Warraich were also killed due to the same rivalry.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2019