BADIN: A former close aide to slain peasant leader, Fazil Rahu, and currently vice president of Pakistan Peoples Party’s Badin chapter, Comrade Ali Ahmed Jokhio, was found hanging with a rope from a tree in front of the shrine of his political guide and mentor in Rahuki village early on Friday morning.

According to family sources and eyewitnesses, Comrade Jokhio left his house in Badin for Rahuki in his car early in the morning, parked the vehicle outside the residence of late Fazil Rahu’s son, former provincial minister Mohammad Ismail Rahu, and walked up to the shrine.

He was later found by visitors to the shrine hanging from the tree with a large canvas bag attached to his shirt’s button.

The bag had a paper affixed outside, which read “there are letters in the bag which are only for [the eyes of] Mohammad Ismail Rahu, who may open it [the letters’ bundle] and hand them over to the persons to whom they are addressed”, they said.

Police officials confirmed that the note was found attacked outside the bag, which said that only Ismail Rahu could open the letters and hand them over to the addressees. The body was handed over to family members after completion of legal formalities, they said.

Eyewitnesses said that they found Jokhio wearing a Sindhi cap, his legs bent at the knee and feet resting on the ground as the body hanged from the tree. Two Jerry Cans were lying on their side about a metre from the body, which suggested the cans on which the victim was supposed to stand in order to end his life were not put to use at all, they said.

They said that Jokhio’s family members had rushed to the shrine to collect the body but police had already removed it from the tree and laid it on a cot.

Jokhio’s supporters, who wished not to be named, expressed suspicions over the manner of his death and demanded Ismail Rahu should ensure an impartial inquiry was conducted into Jokhio’s death.

The family members and relatives said that they did not want to blame anyone for the tragedy but made it clear Jokhio was never seen in a depressed mood. He was always happy and remained an active worker of the party, they said.

A large number of people, including local leaders and workers of PPP, participated in the funeral. He was buried in Jokhio clan’s ancestral graveyard in Kabil Jokhio village, Badin taluka.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2024