SAHIWAL: Two brothers were shot dead, while the third one was critically injured on Friday when members of two clans had an armed clash over a fight among children at 110/12-L village in Chichawatni tehsil.

Eyewitnesses say children of Rehman, belonging to the Arain clan, were playing in a village street with children of AliRaza,fromthe Rajput clan, when they had a quarrel over a trifle.

However, some locals intervened and sent the children back to their homes in the same street.

After around an hour, the elders of the children who had quarreled came out in the street, ensuing exchange of hot words between members of the two clans, who had been living in the village since the Partition.

The situation escalated when some members of the Rajput clan took out weapons and resorted to aerial firing.

As per the eyewitnesses, following the aerial firing, around 15-18 men from both groups started fighting with sticks, and bamboo sticks, and pelted each other with stones.

As the fight was going on, Rajput clan members opened fire, leaving Rehman (45) and his brother Irfan (35) dead on the spot. Their third brother, Imran (30), suf-fered severe head injuries after being beaten with bamboo sticks by their rivals.

Locals say that the police were informed of the fight immediately, but they reached the spot after a considerable delay and by the time the two brothers had been shot dead and their killers had fled the scene.

However, the police arriving at the scene took custody of the bodies and collected forensic evidence. The injured brother of the two deceased persons was shifted to THQ, Chichawatni, for medical treatment.

DPO Rana Tahir took notice of the incident and ordered the immediate arrest of the suspects.

The police later started raiding the houses of the suspects and claimed to have arrested Ali Raza, Ali Husnain and Ali Hasan, while their five accomplices managed to escape.

SHO Mudasir Ghaffar said the bodies had been shifted to the Sahiwal Teaching Hospital for autopsy.

The SHO said the matter was being investigated and an FIR of the double-murder was being filed against the suspects.

Chichawatni Saddar DSP Taseer Riaz confirmed that three suspects had been arrested and raids were being conducted to arrest others.