MUZAFFARABAD: Two brothers and their uncle were shot dead allegedly over cutting down of trees in a disputed land in Bagh district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Saturday, police said.

Raja Mohammad Irfan, a resident of Bees Bagla village in the jurisdiction of Arja police station, stated in his application which was later turned into an FIR that his sons Raja Mohammad Kamran, an assistant director in Women`s University Bagh, and Raja Mohammad Imran had joined their uncle ex-serviceman Raja Yasin Khan and his son Mohammad Naeem in Ratti Dhairi village to look after their land.

At about 9:30am, Naeem informed him by phone that Raja Gul Mohammad Khan of Ratti Dhairi had shot at them from the balcony of his house with a 12-bore gun, leaving his father and both Imran and Kamran dead on the spot and causing serious injuries to him, Mr Irfan added.

However, residents and police sources told Dawn that the suspect had an altercation and scuffle with the victims allegedly over cutting of tree(s) by the victims on a piece of land claimed by both sides, following which he shot them.

Angry relatives of the deceased protested around the bodies which were later removed for postmortem after police assured the protesters that justice would be done at all costs. Burials will take place on Sunday.

SP Bagh Khurram Iqbal told Dawn that the suspect, who is in his early sixties, had himself received injuries, and had fled to nearby forests. `However, we have formed several teams to hunt him down and are hopeful of success,` he said.

The deceased Kamran and Imran were nephews of retired Col Raja Zameer Khan, a PTl leader who had also contested previous by-election on PTl ticket from central Bagh but could not succeed.