HYDERABAD: Two brothers — owners of some agricultural lands in Rahuki and a bungalow in Qasimabad — were booked along with one of their friends on Friday after murder of formers’ 15-year-old domestic servant sometime during the previous night at their residence.

The victim, Mahmood Mallah, belonged to a peasant family and was hired by the landowners, Hassan and Hussain, sons of late Ejaz Magsi.

Qasimabad SHO Sajjad Jatoi quoted two other domestic servants, Shahid Mallah and Atar Mallah, who are cousins of the deceased and also worked at the bungalow, as telling the police that Mahmood was serving his employers, Hassan and Hussain, and their visiting friend, Muntazir Shah, while they were probably enjoying drinks on Thursday night. According to the Mallahs, they heard gunshot sound and rushed to the room where they [Hassan, Hussain and Muntazir] were present. The Mallahs stated that they saw Mahmood lying in a pool of blood on carpet and Muntazir Shah holding a gun in his hands.

The SHO said that Muntazir Shah hailed from Moro. He also quoted the Mallahs as saying that the Magsi brothers [Hassan and Hussain] asked Atar Mallah to take away the body and that they would handle the police on their own.

Co-workers tell police he was killed by his masters’ visiting friend

When the body was taken to the home of Mahmood Mallah in Allah Bachayo Mirbahar village of Tando Qaiser, his shocked relatives and neighbours gathered there. Atar Mallah narrated the episode to them, and said that before Mahmood was shot, the Magsi brothers and Muntazir Shah kept calling him into the room and later vented their anger on him.

Mahmood’s mother, Maddam Mallah, wife of Laloo Mallah, lodged a murder FIR at the Latifabad police station on Friday against the three suspects. She stated in the FIR that Hassan Magsi wanted her son to accompany him to his Latifabad residence from his Rahuki lands but Mahmood was reluctant. She further stated that Hassan forcibly took him to his residence, located in Muslim Society, Latifabad.

According to the SHO, Mahmood had succumbed to his gunshot wounds as he was not taken to any hospital. He said the matter was not reported to the police until the deceased youth’s mother approached the Latifabad police station to lodge the FIR.

The body was brought to the Qasimabad police station on Thursday night and sent to the Liaquat University Hospital (LUH), Hyderabad, for a postmortem examination.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2024