NAWA B S H A H /M IR PU RKHAS: Six suspects were booked at the Khaai police station of Sanghar district on Sunday for allegedly gunning down former taluka nazim and a local leader ofthe Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) Khuda Bakhsh Dars along with his guard, Khalique Dino Dars, in an ambush a day earlier.

The FIR (No. 25/2024) was lodged by Ali Hasan Dars, a nephew of deceased Khuda Bakhsh Dars, against Ali Hasan Marri and his two sons Faiz Mohammed and Gul Mohammed along with Sohbat Marri, Sheru Marri and Kando Marri under Sections 302, 404 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code. Two of the suspects werearrested soon after the incident on Saturday.

A press release issued from the office of the Shaheed Benazirabad DIG Pervaiz Chandio said that Mr Dars and his body guard were shot dead within the limits of the Khaai police station of Sanghar district on Saturday. Police reached the spot on time and shifted the bodies to a hospital for a postmortem examination, it said.

The statement further said that police got to know that theincident was the outcome of a land dispute between two persons, Aslam Dars and Ali Nawaz Marri, in which Aslam Dars and his associates were alleged to have killed Ali Nawaz Marri in 2014. The FIR of that incident was lodged at the Khaai police station, it added.

The statement said that after the Saturday incident, the police arrested Sohbat Marri and Gul Marri [son and nephew of Ali Nawaz Marri, respectively], who confessed to have murderedKhuda Bakhsh Dars in revenge for the 2014 murders.

Funeral of Dars held Pakistan Muslim LeagueFunctional (PML-F) and GDA leader Haji Khuda Bakhsh Dars was laid to rest in his ancestral Mathoon Dars village of Khipro taluka in Sanghar district late Saturday night.

Leaders and members of the PML-F, GDA and other parties as well as those of the Hur Jamaat were among thousands of people who attended the funeral.

Khipro town, which had shut down soon after the incident, remained closed in mourning on Sunday as well.

On the directives of Mirpurkhas DIG Javed Jiskani Baloch, strong contingents of police drawn from Mirpurkhas, Tharparkar and Sanghar districts were deployed in and around the village and Khipro town to maintain peace amid tension over the incident and fear of a flare-up. Sources said that situation in many towns and villages of Sanghar and Mirpurkhas districts was also tense.

Strict security arrangements were made by the Sanghar SSP which included checking of vehicles at the entry and exit points of various towns.

Leaders and members of the Hur Jamaat and PML-F as well as other political parties were visiting the bereaved Dars family all the day to offer their condolences.