SUKKUR: Three brothers were shot dead in their sleep allegedly by their rivals over an old dispute, stemming from the victims` rejection of a marriage proposal in Kalar Brohi village in Lakhi Ghulam Shah taluka, Shikarpur district, late on Friday night.

Sources in the village said that unidentified armed men barged into a house, fired indiscriminately at the sleeping brothers and escaped away easily.

Police officials said that they rushed to the village after receiving information about the triple murder and shifted the dead bodies to taluka hospital for post mortem examination.

The assailants had killed 50-year-old Habibullah Brohi and his brothers, 42-yearold Amanullah Brohi and 39-year-old Nasrullah Brohi, they said.

Shikarpur SSP Irfan Ali Sammu told Dawn that he had formed police teams and directed them to leave no stone unturned in arresting the killers. Police had cordoned off the area and mounted search for the assailants, he said.

He said that it was learnt after preliminary investigation that the victims had an old enmity with a group over a matrimonial issue.

Sources said the dispute started when the victims` family rejected marriage proposal extended by a youth of the rival group, leading to clash between the two sides in which a man was killed and another was wounded. The family had then fled to an area in Balochistan, they said.