SUKKUR, June 25: Sukkur police claimed to have arrested 10 suspects after a late-night raid in the kutcha area of Saeedabad on charges of taking two policemen hostage and subjecting them to maltreatment.

However, the area people rejected police claims and insisted the suspects were innocent villagers.

Sources in police said that a heavy contingent of police cordoned off the katch area in the jurisdiction of Abad police station, ransacked the houses and arrested 10 suspects but declined to disclose their names.

Ali Hassan Mirani, an elder of the area, said the raid and arrests were an attempt to shift blame as police were trying to save their colleagues who had tried to criminally assault four women. They would move the Sindh High Court against police action, he warned.

Mr Mirani said that four policemen posted at Saeedabad checkpost tried to criminally assault Sughra, Zarina, Razia and Zubaida on Tuesday when they were going to fields to collect fodder for cattle.

The women raised alarm and the villagers rushed to their rescue who managed to get hold of two policemen, Imdad Gilal and Gul Bahar Channa, while the other two managed to escape, he said.

Later, police raided the area to get the two policemen freed and lodged an FIR on their complaint, accusing 16 innocent villagers of causing hindrance to official duty and maltreating policemen, he said.

Head Constable Jawed Hussain Wagho dismissed Mr Mirani’s version of the story as baseless and said that a police party of Saeedabad police checkpost led by ASI Saifullah Jatoi raided the area to arrest an absconder Qurban Mirani who was wanted to police in a murder case. When the police were returning with Qurban, his accomplices attacked them and got him released, he claimed.

Man Killed: One Dilsher Bozdar, 24, was gunned down when he was asleep in his home in Mevo Bozdar village near Jarwar in the Mirpur Mathelo area of Ghotki district late on Tuesday night.

Dilsher’s mother, Roshan alias Pari, accused her husband Pehalwan of killing their son. He was their only son and his father shot him dead with the help of his brothers to stop their property from going into his hands, she alleged.

Mr Pehalwan blamed Asghar Bozdar and Sanaullah Bozdar for his son’s murder and said they had a running dispute with him over an old karo-kari incident.

The villagers supported the mother’s claim that Pehalwan had gunned down his own son with the help of his brothers Gulsher, Behram and Shaman because he was afraid his son would occupy the entire property. No case was registered till the filing of this report.

Police shifted the body to Civil Hospital Mirpur Mathelo for post-mortem.