MULTAN, May 11: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has demanded stern action against all those responsible for the killings of eight tribesmen in cold blood in Rojhan area of Rajanpur district by police in a fake encounter.

A fact-finding mission of the commission, headed by its Multan task force coordinator Advocate Rashid Rehman, visited the area Taggu Musaniwala Pattan, a riverine settlement along side the river Indus where the "encounter" took place on May 1.

A police inspector and eight alleged dacoits were killed in a "shootout". All the dead tribesmen belonged to the Dulani sub-clan of Mazari tribe. In its report, the HRCP task force said a police party, led by Inspector Azeem Niazi, surprised the dwellers of Basti Mohib Dulani during a pre-dawn raid when the people were asleep.

People told the HRCP team that the inspector along with few other officials barged into the house of Dil Murad without any warrants. They wanted to arrest some Dulanis accused of a murder. The police brought out Ali Dost, Muhammad Bakhsh and Rafiqullah from their houses. In the meanwhile, a bullet hit Inspector Niazi on left side of his belly.

At this, the policemen accompanying the injured inspector shot dead the three arrested men while Suna Khan was gunned down when he was coming out to court arrest. Councillor Mohib Khan Dulani, Dil Murad, Noor Elahi and Elahi Bakhsh were also killed in cold blood near their houses.

The report mentioned that a member of the medical board that conducted postmortem on the eight tribesmen said they were shot at from a close range. The report pointed out that contrary to their initial statement that the "dacoits" were killed in a "shootout", the police had claimed in the FIR that they were killed by the firing of their accomplices.

Challenging the police claim, the HRCP team observed that circumstantial evidence suggested that there occurred no shootout as no one from either side was injured or any among those who took away the injured inspector on a cot for first aid amid what police claimed heavy exchange of fire.

The report said though the police had registered 17 FIRs against Dulanis after "recovering illegal arms" from their possession but in none of the FIR the police had mentioned recovery of empty bullet shells found from the place of shootout.

"Torching houses of the dead Dulanis was an act of police that shows the vindictive attitude of the force," the report said, adding: "the police are guilty of ruthless violation of the law." The task force said a stern action should be taken not only against those who killed the tribesmen but against their immediate bosses as well.