Around a thousand men, women and children, relatives of Malik Ashraf, who was murdered along with his son and a passerby at the doorstep of his house late on Sunday night, accompanied by locals of Kot Kamboh staged a protest at Sherakot Chowk and blocked Motorway and Bund Road for more than two hours on Monday. The protestors chanted slogans against the negligence of law enforcing agencies and torched tyres. Some women and kids also fell unconscious during the protests. Protestors blamed that the policemen had not given their best to arrest the criminals. Relatives of Malik Ashraf’s neighbor, Sufi Muhammad Hussain, who was also killed in the incident, also joined the protest along with four kids of Malik Azhar, son of the deceased Malik Ashraf. The victims’ families could barely comment on their relative’s murder and kept on crying for justice. Malik Azhar’s wife, in an attempt to speak a few words, went unconscious. However, her nine-year-old daughter, Gulnar, and son, Yasir, demanded criminals’ arrests.
Yasir claimed that Chaudhry Anwar, who was a close relative of Chaudhary Qayyum alias Quma Qissai, had been threatening them for dire consequences for a long time, and he was the one who got his relatives killed. He said that Anwar wanted to stop Ashraf and his family from probing Ashraf’s son Malik Baber’s murder case. He said that Anwar’s son and five others gunned down Baber in 2005.
He claimed that Anwar’s son was declared a proclaimed offender in the case while few servants of the Anwar’s family were awarded punishments and detained in jail. He said that Anwar wanted to settle the matter in order to save his son’s skin and that had led them to murder the Maliks. After hearing about the protest, only Nawankot DSP Chaudhary Anwar and Nawankot SHO Faisal Sharif reached the scene. The DSP held a meeting with the family of Malik Ashraf and assured them of immediate arrest of the criminals. Protestor disbursed peacefully after getting assurance from the DSP.
The DSP said that they had handed over the bodies to their heirs after autopsy. He said that the three deceased men were laid to rest in a local graveyard after funeral prayers. He said that the protestors had lodged a protest straight after burying the three deceased men. He said they had registered a case against six men and the complainant, Mohsin, had nominated Chaudhary Adnan, Chaudhary Farooq and Chaudhary Faisal in the case. He said that they had conducted raids at the residence of the accused but they managed to escape. He said that they raided in the presence of the relatives of Malik Ashraf so that they know about police’s efforts. He said that they have started investigations in the case, which they have registered under murder, attempt murder and anti-terrorist act. He hoped that they would soon arrest the men involved.
