SHIKARPUR, Jan 15: A villager, Aijaz Ali Kalwar, was killed by unidentified assailants on Jhali Kalwari-Bagarji road in the jurisdiction of the Bajargi police on Monday. Five armed men intercepted a coaster, forcibly made the villager get down and shot him dead.

The motive behind the killing is said to be an ongoing feud between some members of Kalwar and Jatoi communities.

No FIR was registered till the filing of this report.

KIDNAP VICTIMS: Four men, including the Jacobabad district president of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl), who were kidnapped on Sunday evening, returned home on Monday.

Three of them -- JUI leader Syed Shah Mohammad Shah, Ghulam Hyder Gopang, an employee of the PTCL, and Dr Abdul Hameed Mangi of a Thul hospital -- spoke at a press conference at the local press club on Monday evening. They said that they were kidnapped by a group of armed men on Rustam link road near the Mirza Wah-Sindh Wah bridge when they were returning in a car after attending a marriage ceremony in Sukkur.

The Shikarpur DPO was informed about their kidnapping but he did not take any action, they said.

Mr Shah further said that he and his three friends were released by their kidnappers when he identified himself as a Syed. However, the kidnappers refused to hand over their car, he added.

Mr Shah and other JUI local leaders present on the occasion expressed resentment over the negligence of the police regarding the kidnapping.

They alleged that the police were encouraging criminal activities and were not providing protection to the people in the district.

The JUI leaders called on the Sindh chief minister and police chief to immediately transfer the DPO of Shikarpur and other negligent police officers.