The Sindh police have announced Rs 0.5 million reward for information about the killers of Dr Saleem Kharal, head of the Pathology Department at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and brother of Pakistan People’s Party MPA Naeem Kharal.
The police authorities have assured that the name of the informer would be kept secret. Fifty-two-year-old Kharal, who hailed from Khairpur, was killed by unidentified assailants on December 30 near the Punjab Chowrangi, while he was travelling in a car with his wife and driver.
Police officials have ruled out the possibility of targeted killing, saying that the doctor was killed while resisting robbers. But sources said Dr Kharal’s family disagrees with the police’s point of view. The doctor’s wife told the police that two men opened fire on Dr Kharal’s chest when they stopped at a traffic signal. The doctor was rushed to the JPMC, but he succumbed to his injuries. VIP movement in the area caused some delay in taking him to the hospital. There is an ancestral dispute between the Kharal and Narejo tribes in kachcha area of Khairpur and Larkana districts and several people from both tribes have killed by their rivals including prominent Sindhi writer Naseem Kharal, the brother of Dr Kharal.
