BADIN: Thirteen policemen were injured in a clash with a mob of Magsi tribesmen in Allan Khan Magsi village of Matli taluka in Badin district on late Saturday evening.

The enraged Magsis were protesting over “disappearance” of a youth, Jan Mohammad Magsi, from the lock-up of Matli police. They claimed that Jan Mohammad was picked up by the police in connection with a motorcycle theft.

The police tried to convince the protesters that the suspect was freed by a group of angry people, who took away the youth with them. However, the protesters disbelieved the police claim and a little later several hundred members of the Magsi tribe gathered at the police station. When they did not find Jan Mohammad in the lock-up, they became furious and started attacking police with bricks and clubs. They also smashed window panes of a police mobile van. The police said 13 of their colleagues and two protesters were injured in the mob attack.

The police lobbed tear gas shells and resorted to aerial firing to disperse the mob. Later, they launched a crackdown on protesters and started demolishing houses of some suspects with the help of bulldozers and torching some of them. However, they were restrained by an influential political figure of the area.

The Matli police registered two separate FIRs against around 50 suspects, some of them were named, and conducted raids at different places to arrest them.

Three suspects were held and being interrogated, the police said.

Allan Khan Magsi and adjacent Wali Mohammad Magsi villages remained cordoned off by the police till the last reports came in late Sunday evening.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2024