SHIKARPUR: A woman and two brothers died and a man and his son suffered serious wounds in an exchange of fire between two rival groups of Brohi tribe in Ghulam Mohammad Brohi village near Khanpur on Thursday.

Bakht Bibi, 50, wife of Jan Mohammad Brohi, and two brothers Qutbuddin, 52, and Rawat aka Dado, 48, were killed and Mohammad Hayat and his father Dodo Khan Brohi were injured. Police shifted the bodies and the injured to Khanpur taluka hospital where the injured received first aid and the post mortem was carried out.

Khanpur SHO Shahjahan Shah said that when a group of Brohi tribesmen from Khanpur and Hayat Khan Brohi village tried to pass through Ghulam Mohammad Brohi village, their rivals stopped them from setting foot in their territory. It led to exchange of hot words and soon spiralled into an armed clash, resulting in loss of three lives.

He said the two groups had been at loggerheads with each other for quite some time and their dispute had started over a petty issue of playing tape recorder at high volume.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2020