SUKKUR, June 19: Following a fierce battle between Mehar and Jatoi tribesmen on Tuesday night, police have come out with the claim that all the 10 killed during the fighting were hardened criminals.

The AIG, Sukkur Range, Syed Nayyar Husnain, accompanied by the DPO of Shikarpur, Nadir Hussain, told newsmen here on Wednesday that many more tribesmen involved in the fighting were wanted by police.

He said that some of those killed even carried a head-money of two million rupees.

Referring to the agitation, after the battle ended, the AIG said that Mehars demanded custody of the dead but police held up the bodies for proper identification because they were not innocent citizens.

Police, late on Tuesday night, had to fire teargas shells to disperse hundreds of protesters who blocked the National Highway and other link roads for several hours after police refused to hand over the bodies. The mortal remains have since been handed over to their relatives.

Giving details from the police record about the activities of the dead, the AIG said that Ahmedo Jagirani was involved in 52 and his brother, Wazir in 21 cases of heinous crimes including kidnapping for ransom and murder. Akber and Shahzado, both Jagiranis, were wanted by police in more than 18 cases of similar nature, he added.

He said that the gangsters had fled Goro Teghani area during an anti-dacoit operation last month. They had taken shelter in hide-outs controlled by Mehars in Chak town and continued their criminal activities from there till their death, he added.

The AIG said the other six victims appeared to be Mehars and they also had dozens of criminal cases in their account. He said they had already been declared proclaimed offenders or absconders.

He disclosed that the Mehars were working together with the Jagiranis and Thaghanis in their fight against the Jatois. He said that a few murders under the Karo-kari several years ago had ignited an armed battle between Mehars and Jatois which was still being fuelled by both the sides.

About the fresh outbreak of violence, the AIG revealed that about 20 armed Mehars and Jagiranis in police uniform attacked a village, inhabited by Jatois, near Habibkot. He said that Jatois were very much expecting such an attack due to the similar intermittent raids over a certain period. The attack sparked off a long battle causing a heavy loss of life to Mehars.

Because of their preparedness, he added, Jatois suffered no loss of life though the injured included a number of people from both the sides.

He said that the bodies, received by their relatives, mostly women, were taken to a village near Wazirabad for burial.

The DPO told newsmen that an alert had been sounded in the tense troubled area. He said that a fresh operation was imminent to capture or eliminate other criminals.

He said no weapons were recovered from the scene of the fighting as all the bodies were taken away by the Jatois first. The arms, he said, could have been taken away by the injured accomplices of the dead or those who collected the bodies.

To a question, he said he could not rule out presence of outlaws belonging to Jatoi tribe in the area. He indicated that most of those involved in Tuesday’s fighting had fled the area to escape a retaliation or arrest.

The DPO said that a strategy was under study to disarm all the tribesmen breaking the law.

FIRS LODGED:Two hundred people, all of them Mehar tribesmen, have been booked for ‘revolt against police and state’ by blocking the Indus Highway and using fire arms.