SUKKUR: Two policemen were killed and their four colleagues, including an SHO, were wounded when a gang of dacoits attacked them with rockets and anti-aircraft guns near Kandhkot on Saturday.

According to the area police, the police team was attacked when it was moving to their check-post in Nehar Patan village in the Ghelpur riverine area near Kandhkot.

The deceased policemen were identified as Hudeh Domki and Sabir Domki. SHO Gul Mohammad Mahar and constables Shahak Jakhrani, Misri Jakhrani and Abdul Wahab Jakhrani sustained serious wounds in the attack.

Kandhkot SSP Ifan Ali Sammo dispatched a strong contingents of police, drawn from different stations, to the area to pick up the bodies and wounded policemen and transport them to the Kashmore Civil Hospital.

Two policemen killed, SHO and four colleagues wounded

A postmortem examination of the bodies was performed and the wounded policemen were admitted to the hospital for emergency treatment.

Police officials said that SHO Gul Mohammad Mahar and constable Misri Jakhrani were later referred to the Sukkur Civil Hospital due to their precarious condition.

The bodies were handed over to the heirs after medico-legal formalities, they added.

The police contingent took up position in the Ghelpur area and responded to the dacoits in a befitting manner, said the officials.

SSP Sammo said that despite having suffered loss of life, the police force responded quickly and fought off the dacoits gallantly.

Asked if the Kashmore police had been provided sophisticated arms after, as the IGP had recently claimed, receiving 60 per cent of the required weapons from Sindh government, the SSP denied having received such weapons matching those being used by the dacoit gangs. He said the police force detailed for the massive operation in the riverine area of upper Sindh required sophisticated weaponry and a request in this regard had already been made through the provincial police chief.

In reply to a question about any steps taken to avert or counter such attacks in future, the SSP said that they were doing their best to protect police from such attacks which proved one-sided as the dacoits had better weapons than the police force possessed.

Protests against Prof Sawand’s murder

Members of Jeay Sindh Mahaz and civil society, rights activists, teachers, lawyers and general public took out separate processions to record protest against the murder of Prof Ajmal Sawand and demand justice for the late academician.

The JSM activists marched on different roads before gathering at press club, raising slogans against police and demanding immediate arrest of the professor’s killers.

The other procession was taken out from Ghanta Ghar in which journalists, writers, and businessmen took part and demanded justice for the slain professor.

The protesters’ leaders said that the tribes had been living side by side for centuries peacefully but their feuds were a recent phenomenon and result of a conspiracy hatched against peace in Sindh.

In Jacobabad, activists of Pakistan Peoples Party-Shaheed Bhutto brought out a procession from the party’s district office and arrived at the press club where they raised slogans and demanded arrest of the alleged killers.

The protesters’ leaders said that criminals had killed conscience of Sindh by killing Prof Sawand in the name of tribal conflict.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2023