HYDERABAD: Several suspects, including some political activists, were booked after three days of protest by minority Bheel community members, who claimed that they were physically harmed and harassed by them on Monday.

The FIR (No.126/2026) was registered on behalf of the state.

The Kotri police were reluctant to register the FIR ever since the alleged incident took place as the Bheels had been insisting to nominate some unconcerned suspects in their case.

On Wednesday, the aggrieved Bheels had held a sit-in outside the Kotri police station to mount pressure on police for the registration of their FIR. They claimed that they were physically harmed by the suspects while passing through their colony, situated behind the Baba Salahuddin shrine.

They accused some members of the Barejo community who, they alleged, were resisting their efforts against liquor trade within their colony, which also houses a camp of some peasants liberated from various ‘private jails’ in Sindh.

In a clash between the two sides, some people were injured. The Bheels then proceeded to the Kotri police station, along with their injured fellows who were lying on a cot, to hold the sit-in.

Dhan Raj Bheel told local journalists that his community was demanding an end to the liquor trade in the colony. The business was being “patronised by some fellows belonging to the Barejo community”, they alleged.

Police have picked up one of the suspects but did not disclose his identity.

SSP Jamshoro Zafar Siddique, talking to Dawn a day earlier that a scuffle had taken place between “children from the two sides” as both Bheels and Barejos shared the same neighbourhood. He said that police were initially not registering the Bheels’ FIR because they were insisting on nominating those who were not present at the place of offence.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2026