NAWABSHAH, Dec 5: Three persons were shot dead by unidentified people near the shrine of Sufi saint Mehdi Shah in Shahpur Jehanian near here on Sunday.

The victims were identified as Raza Mohammad Wagan, 35, Sadiq Wagan, 18, and Razzaq Wagan, 20, attendants of the Sajjada Nasheen of the shrine, Hassan Shah Jehanian.

They were residents of the Phull town in Naushahro Feroze and had come here to look after arrangements of the marriage of Asad Shah, brother of Hassan Shah. The bodies were taken to a hospital in Daulatpur for postmortem and later handed over to relatives.

Mashooq Ali, brother of the deceased Sadiq, lodged an FIR against Masood Shah, Maqbool Shah, Sikandar Shah, Nizamdin Bagu, Nadeem Punjabi, Mir Mohammad Larikh and five others.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people blocked the National Highway by placing the bodies on it, demanding arrest of the killers. Traffic on the road near Shahpur Jehanian remained suspended for about one hour. Led by the shrine's Sajjada Nasheen, the protesters criticized police for failing to arrest the killers.