DADU: Family members of slain PPP leader Raees Karamullah Chandio along with their relatives and sympathisers staged a sit-in at Mehar bypass on the National Highway on Saturday in protest against police failure to arrest PPP MPA Nawab Burhan Chandio even after the Model Criminal Trial Court of Dadu rejected his bail plea a day before.

Raees Chandio and his two sons, Mukhtiar and Qabil, were killed in an armed attack on their residence in Ahmed Colony locality of Mehar taluka four years ago.

Umme Rubab Chandio, daughter of Mukhtiar Chandio, led the protesters who staged a sit-in at the bypass for five hours before marching along the highway for two kilometres.

Wearing a black dress in mourning over murder of her loved ones, and walking bare feet to show her helplessness, she condemned the deeply entrenched tribal system and police failure to enforce its writ by arresting the MPA.

She said that three of her family members — her grandfather Raees Karamullah Chandio, the then chairman of the Baldai union council of Mehar taluka; her father Mukhtiar Chandio, and uncle Qabil Chandio — were killed in the Jan 17, 2018 attack. The Model Criminal Trial Court rejected bail application of one of the accused in the case, Burhan Chandio, on Friday but police did not lay hands on him.

She said that threats were being issued to her and her family members to scare them into silence but they were not afraid. They would continue the protest till the arrest of the MPA, she said.

Pervaiz Ahmed Chandio, another son of late Karamullah Chandio who is the complainant in the triple murder case, Aijaz Chandio and Amir Mahesar also led the demonstration, which was later joined by Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz central leader Dr Niaz Kalani and social activist Punhal Sario.

The protest was called off after five hours when Dadu SSP Irfan Sammo held talks with Umme Rubab and assured her that the MPA would be arrested “within 24 hours”.

The court had on Friday rejected bail application of Burhan Chandio, a former adviser to Sindh chief minister, but granted bail to his brother Sardar Nawab Chandio (also a PPP MPA) in the same case after which SSP formed a team of seven SHOs led by a DSP to arrest the MPA.

The two brothers along with five others identified as Ali Gohar, Sattar, Sikandar, Murtaza and Zulfiqar, were nominated as accused in the triple murder case. The victims’ family believed the murders were carried out at the behest of the influential Chandio brothers.

The court fixed Feb 18 as the next date of hearing.

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2022