SUKKUR: Former member of the Sindh Assembly Shaheryar Shar, his son Jehangir Shar and eight other suspects were booked at the Khenjo police station on Tuesday for their alleged involvement in the Sunday (March 16) attack on MPA Jam Mehtab Hussain Dahar.

Jam Mehtab had escaped unhurt in the attack but his bodyguard, Zafar Dahar, was killed and three other persons, Asad Shah, Akhtar Pathan and Channesar Dondho, were wounded. The incident had taken place along a link road near the Batri Wahi area of Ubauro taluka.

Ghotki SSP Dr Samiullah Soomro had requested Jam Mehtab to allow him time to seek higher authorities’ permission before an FIR of his desire could be registered against his political rival, Shaheryar Shar, and other suspects.

On Tuesday, the FIR vide crime No. 3/2025 was registered under Sections 302, 324, 148, 149 and 324 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).

Full-scale police operation launched in Ghotki villages to track down suspects

A full-scale police operation was launched in Peerano and Sobdar Shar villages, falling within the Rwanti area near Obouro, to track down the assailants involved in the attack. None of the nominated or unknown suspects, however, could be arrested till late in the evening.

The prime suspect, Shaheryar Shar, held a press conference on Tuesday to reject Jam Mehtab’s allegations.

SSP Dr Soomro is leading the police contingent comprising officers and personnel drawn from 15 police stations of the district.

Mirpur Mathelo DSP Mohammad Younus and Ubauro DSP Abdul Qadir Soomro are also in the field to assist the SSP in the operation.

The mechanised police contingent consisting of four armoured personnel carriers (APCs), 15 mobile vans and several other heavy machineries rolled into the villages and started demolishing and torching suspected hideouts of the attackers.

The SSP said that scores of raids were conducted in the area in the ‘targeted operation’ but the suspects seemed to have already slipped into the nearby riverine area to escape arrest.

He told Dawn on Tuesday evening that more than 20 suspected hideouts were demolished and several of them were set on fire.

He confirmed that no one was arrested during the day-long operation which, he said, would continue till the arrest of all suspects.

‘Shaheryar himself led the attackers’

Deviating from his earlier statement that Shaheryar Shar had masterminded the attack carried out by a number of attackers, Jam Mehtab stated in his belatedly registered FIR that Shar himself led the assailants.

Claiming that Shar had harboured grudge against him as he [Jam Mehtab] had defeated him in the election for the Ghotki seat of the Sindh Assembly.

Giving his account of the attack, Jam Mehtab stated in the FIR that on Sunday (March 16), he along with Zafar Ahmed Khan Dahar [the bodyguard killed in the incident], Akhtar Hussain Pathan and Channesar Panhwar riding his vehicle (bearing registration No.9293-KV); and Mohammad Yousuf Bhutto and Ghulam Raza Shah alias Syed Asad Shah riding another vehicle, were proceeding to his farmlands.

While passing through the Kehnjo link road, “Shaheryar Shar riding his vehicle drove up to the front of us and stepped out to warn me that I had not done good by contesting against him in the election,” he claimed, adding that Shar drove away after hurling threats against him.

On return from his farmlands, Jam Mehtab alleged, Shaheryar Shar, his son Jehangir, and other armed men appeared before their vehicles and started firing on them with Kalashnikovs. Zafar Dahar received fatal bullet wounds while three other companions were also wounded in the attack, said Jam Mehtab.

Shaheryar rejects all allegations

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Shaheryar Shar rejected all the allegations levelled by Jam Mehtab.

He argued that Jam Mehtab had initially described the assailants as ‘unknown’ but in the FIR he had now named him, his son and others as the assailants.

Shar also wondered that why the killed bodyguard’s heirs were not being allowed to lodge their FIR.

He said Jam Mehtab might have conspired to get rid of the bodyguard by staging the attack because, according to Shar, Zafar was made to ride Jam Mehtab’s vehicle and he [Jam] used the other vehicle.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2025