BAHAWALPUR: After a man was shot dead and five others, including two women, were injured over children`s brawl in the suburbs of Basti Baqirpur, the victim`s relative staged a sit-in and blocked the National Highway for four hours in protest against the killing on Tuesday night.

According to police and Rescue 1122 sources, after a brawl between the children belonging to families of locals Shakir and Ata Muhammad the matter was reconciled, but the two sides again confronted each other later, leading to the firing incident.

Complainant Shakir in the FIR No 467/22 registered under sections 324,452,148 and1490fthe Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) stated that four armed men Ata Muhammad,Muhaad Rauf, Hassan and Muhammad Fahad along with their seven unidentified accomplices arrived at his place and opened indiscriminate fire, seriously injuring Jaffer, Ashiq, Shehzad, Azra Bibi, Sonia, Waseem, Jahangir and Imtiaz.

On being informed of the incident, teams of Rescue 1122 and police reached the spot and shifted the injured to the Bahawal Victoria Hospital (BVH), where one of them, Muhammad Jaffer, succumbed to his injuries.

The enraged relatives of the victim, brought the body back from the BVH and staged a demo placing it on the main Lahore-Karachi National Highway near Basti Baqirpur, blocking the road for traffic for four hours.

They alsoburnt tyres and staged a sit-in there against the killing, demanding immediate arrest ofthe killers.

Because of the late night protest at McDonald Chowk, long queues of buses, trucks, cars and other vehicles were witnessed on the LahoreKarachi highway, causing a great deal of inconvenience to the commuters.

Locals police officials reaching the spot held a dialogue with the protesters, assuring them of early arrest of the suspects. After the police`s assurance, the protesters dispersed and the highway was opened for traffic.

On Wednesday, Saddar police claimed to have arrested two of the suspects. The police also claimed that the remaining suspects would be arrested soon.

As per BV H doctors, the condition of three of the injured was serious.

According to sources, the police are considering action against protesters for blocking the National Highway.