THATTA, Aug 14: Ten members of a family, including two women and a child, were injured as a police team riding on five vans and accompanied by motorcyclists in plain clothes stormed Haroon Chandio village near Mirpur Sakro on Tuesday, villagers said.

According to them, a heavy police contingent, led by Mirpur Sakro TPO Gul Abbas and SHO Yaqoob Bhatti, beat the villagers with rifle butts and kicks, creating a rumpus in the village. The police dragged the women and hurled abusive words against the victims.

A child, Islamuddin, Mustafa, Umer, Ibrahim, Wahid Bux, Mumtaz and the wives of Imam Bux, Sher Mohammad and Rais Hussain were among those injured.

Some villagers on the request of anonymity told Dawn that the motorcyclists accompanying the police were political rivals of the victim family. They claimed that the police on the instigation of their rivals had registered a number of fictitious cases against some members of the victim family.

The villagers said that the Thatta session court was recently moved to obtain relief against police excesses and the police had stormed the village to force the petitioner to withdraw the petition.

When contacted, Thatta DPO Rustam Khan Jatoi refuted the allegations and said that the police had conducted the raid to arrest some suspects involved in a robbery attempt committed on Monday night.

Meanwhile, deputy leader of opposition in Sindh Assembly Makhdoom Jamiluzzaman and People’s Party Parliamentarians MPAs Sassui Palijo while condemning the incident told Dawn on telephone that the Thatta police had let loose the hell against PPP activists at the behest of their opponents to force them to change their loyalties.

The PPP leaders warned that the party would launch a protest campaign in Thatta if the victims of Tuesday’s raid were denied justice.

SHOT DEAD: A man, Khair Mohammad, son of Ramzan Zangiani, was shot dead and six others were injured in a clash between two groups of framers over a land dispute in Ghazi Khan Baloch village on Tuesday.