HYDERABAD: Amidst hea­vy police deployment, the body of Moro violence victim, Irfan Leghari, was buried in Mohammad Shah graveyard, instead of his ancestral graveyard, on Sunday under a judicial order.

The funeral was performed by police in the absence and without consent of his family members and close relatives. It was argued that how could his male family members perform the funeral when almost all of them were at present in police custody.

Leghari had received bullet injuries during the May 20 police action and ensuing violence. The action was aimed at dispersing participants of a sit-in against proposed new canals and corporate farming.

The residence of Sindh home minister in Moro was partially torched and two long vehicles were also set ablaze during the violence.

One activist, Zahid Leghari, had died on the spot and Irfan Leghari breathed his last during treatment at Liaquat University Hospital, Hyderabad, on Friday.

Police had not handed over Irfan’s body to his heirs at the hospital’s mortuary fearing that it would be used by protesters to block the National Highway. The police whisked away the body from the LUH on Friday by dodging a large number of mourning and protesting activists outside.

The ambulance carrying the coffin remaind under police custody all the way. The bereaved women family members were forced to receive the body. However, the heirs declined arguing that police had killed him and arrested their other male members so who could perform the burial.

The womenfolk had gathered in Irfan’s native Leghari Bijarani village and demanded release of their male family members.

After keeping the body with them for 48 hours, the police obtained a judicial order and buried it in Mohammad Shah graveyard which, according to Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz-Basheer leader Dr Niaz Kalani, is two kilometres away from Leghari Bijarani village.

Judicial order

Reports from Moro suggested that the funeral took place in the light of the order passed yesterday (May 24) by a judicial officer. Dr Niaz Kalani, who was present in Moro, told Dawn over phone on Sunday evening that “no family member was called … no immediate relative was present in the funeral … about 34 family members of Irfan have been booked in the May 20 violene-related cases registered after the sit-in and torching of home minister’s residence … they all have been shown ‘arrested’ in these cases”.

The judicial order read: “While exercising powers of ex-Officio Justice of Peace SSP Naushahro is directed to hand over dead body to legal heirs of deceased Irfan Ali Leghari from custody of police, in case, the legal heirs refused to receive dead body of deceased or dead body is decomposing then the SSP Naushahro Feroz is further directed to dispose dead body through NGOs if possible in order to avoid creating of further complication and further annoyance of legal heirs of deceased”.

Lawyer questions order

Advocate Roshan Azeem Mallah, who shared a copy of order with Dawn, said the order was highly questionable. He noted that a lawyer, Zahid Ali Shah, had filed an application in the court under Section 491 Cr.PC to obtain this order.

Advocate Mallah said that the judge passed the order as an ‘ex-officio justice of peace’ while the plea before him was filed under Section 491 Cr.PC. “Requirements of 491 Cr.PC and 22-A & B Cr.PC are entirely different, thus this order is ultra vires,” he argued.

QAT condemns burial without heirs’ consent

Meanwhile, Qaumi Awami Tehreek (QAT) President Ayaz Latif Palijo has condemned burial of Irfan Leghari without consent of his heirs, and alleged that PPP had established dictatorship in the name of democracy in Sindh.

In a statement, he said that unarmed people were targeted and killed while body of deceased remained missing.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2025