SUKKUR: Jacobabad police on Friday claimed to have arrested main suspect allegedly involved in the murder of local TV journalist, Syed Muhammad Shah, in Syed Altaf Shah village near Garhi Khairo, Jacobabad district, a day before.

Police officials said that a special team led by Garhi Khairo DSP and SHO arrested the main suspect identified as Abdul Hussain Umrani after he fell wounded in an encounter with police near Ahmed Khan Brohi village. The suspect had been shifted to a Larkana hospital for treatment, they said.

They said that they were looking at different angles of the case and would soon serve justice to the victim’s family. The suspect was named in an FIR lodged by Syed Amir Shah, son of the slain journalist, who said he along with two unidentified men had killed his father, they said.

Honour claimed as motive behind murder

Sources said that the suspect had claimed before his interrogators that he had killed the journalist in the name of honour as he [journalist] had illicit relations with his wife whom he had beaten to death a few days back.

The suspect’s first wife had committed suicide under suspicious circumstances while he had beaten to death his second wife and managed to escape from the crime scene, said the sources.

The slain journalist was laid to rest in his native village, Syed Altaf Shah, on Friday.

A large number of journalists, local leaders of political, social and religious organisations and general public participated in the funeral.

Earlier, Larkana journalists condemned the murder of Muhammad Shah, who worked for a private TV channel in Garhi Khairo and lashed out at police inaction.

Larkana Union of Journalists’ president Ghulam Murtaza Kalhoro, general secretary Tariq Durrani Naveed Larik, photographers and members of local press club demanded immediate arrest of the killers.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2025