SUKKUR: Five villagers, including a guest, were killed in an attack on a house by an armed group (believed to be the members of the Badhani Jatoi gang) over an old feud in the village of Imtiaz Shar in Bechaji area of Shikarpur.

Police identified the victims as Abdul Khaliq Shar, (head of the household), his two sons, Raja Shar and Khalid Shar, brother Abdul Sattar Shar, and a guest, Abdul Jabbar Shar.

Police said that a prolonged land dispute between the tribes of Badhani Jatoi and Shar escalated into a major conflict in the Bechaji area of Shikarpur late last night and people from the Badhani Jatoi tribe attacked the house of Abdul Khaliq Shar. Five members of the Shar community died in the action.

According to reliable sources, area people transported the bodies on a tractor-driven trolley to the Laki Ghulam Shah Hospital. After the medico-legal formalities, the bodies were handed over to the relatives.

The relatives, including women, stated at the hospital that the assailants had devastated their home in the attack.

The bereaved family said the armed attackers first killed two people, along with a guest, Abdul Jabbar Shar. They were sleeping in the guest room (otaq) near the house.

Then they entered the house and murdered Abdul Khaliq Shar’s two sons, one was a class 6 student and another that of class 8.

The sources said the Shar-Badhani feud began two years ago, in which five members of the Shar group and eight of the Badhani group had already been killed in the running clash.

They said that a meeting was scheduled for Jirga on Nov 18 to settle the conflict, and both parties were bound to a ceasefire and peaceful conduct.

But the Badhani group violated that truce with the night attack, they added.

After murdering the five individuals, the armed men also fired rockets to spread terror throughout the entire Laki Ghulam Shah Taluka.

Police claim killing attackers

Following the incident, Shikarpur police, with a heavy contingent, conducted an operation and claimed to have killed four culprits.

However, the police failed to recover even a single body of the killed dacoits.

Independent sources indicated that one young man from the Badhani group, Jawad Badhani Jatoi, was killed and some women sustained injuries during the police operation, but the body was carried away by his associates and injured women were brought to hospital.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2025