MIRPUR: As police failed to arrest assailants who shot dead eight members of a family in Azad Kashmir on Wednesday, the relatives of the victims threaten a massive protest, shutter-down strike if the killers were not arrested within the next 24 hours.
A police official at Samahni, when contacted, told The Express Tribune on Thursday that according to preliminary investigation, old enmity between two groups of the same family claimed lives of the eight persons, including a man and his three sons.
The victims who were going to Bhimber city from Samahni in a pickup to appear before a court in connection with a murder case when they were ambushed by their rivals, near Garhoon village, the police official said, requesting not to be named.
The assailants opened a volley of fire on their vehicle, killing all of them on the spot, and fled from the scene. The deceased, belonging to Raja Sarwar group, were identified as Raja Mumtaz Khan, his three sons, Raja Ayaz, Raja Gohar and Raja Shahzad; Amjad, Mubeen, Bilal and Nomi.
On Thursday, Raja Muhammad Sarwar told reporters that he had given an ultimatum of 48 hours to the local authorities and police for the arrest of the persons nominated in the FIR. Raja Sarwar, a relative of the victims who was also heading to Bhimber in a separate vehicle, identified the assailants as Altaf and Shahbaz, sons of Raja Mushtaq, who was killed in July last year. The two suspects believed that their father had been killed by the deceased.
However, he said that 24 hours have passed and the police could not arrest any of the accused. “We’ll launch a protest followed by a shutter-down strike in the entire valley if the killers are not arrested,” he threatened.
Elders of the Sarwar group including Raja Raiz, the maternal uncle of the three slain brothers, Raja Muhammad Asghar, local politicians endorsed the decision.
When contacted, a senior police official told The Express Tribune that the police were searching for the suspects.
Meanwhile, the slain men were laid to rest in their ancestral graveyard in Samahni.http://tribune.com.pk/story/407648/as-police-fail-to-arrest-assailants-victims-family-gives-24-hour-deadline/
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