MUZAFFARGARH, Sept 14: People from Sanawan have started shifting to undisclosed locations after an alleged killer of five people sent them a message that he would kill them sooner or later. Despite his flagrant warnings, police have failed to arrest the suspect who killed five people of the locality on Sept 8.

Dawn learnt accused Haji Muhammad Gashkori had sent a message to Iqbal, Nazir and Arif Hussain, all from the Gashkori clan and relatives of the suspect, that he would soon ambush their houses to kill them and later he would surrender himself to the police.

Talking to Dawn from an undisclosed location, Nazir said that the messages of the accused had panicked the locality.

People of the area said police were not interested in arresting the accused and perhaps they were also afraid of him.

Iqbal Gashkori, who is also from the locality, said Haji Muhammad had a land dispute with Sadiq and Aziz. On Sept 7, he exchanged hot words with them and warned them that he would come to kill them at night. On Saturday (Sept 8) early morning, Haji Gashkori forced his entry into the house of Sadiq and Aziz and shot them dead while they were asleep. Later, he went to the houses of Ghulam Husain, Allah Divaya and Allah Bakhsh and gunned them down and fled.

Local people said Haji Gashkori went from one house to the other on foot and killed the five men in an hour.

Sanawan police station SHO Mirza Safdar said that District Police Officer Rana Maqsoodul Hassan had set up a new team to arrest the accused and soon the locals would hear good news. — Correspondent