was tired. Expressing his frustration he said that if the police and court did not provide him justice he or his posterity would have to take the law into their own hands to revenge the killing of his innocent son.
He said the accused persons who had been declared proclaimed offenders kept visiting their village without any fear of police. They informed the police about their presence many a time but police did not arrest them. He alleged that Riaz Bhatti would pay Rs50,000 to the SHO for not arresting him. On a question about his source of income, he alleged Bhatti was a dacoit, his two brothers worked in Saudi Arabia. He said he had a lot of money to feed the influential people of the area and police.
Investigation Officer Muhammad Aslam on the issue said they had raided many times to arrest the accused persons but failed. On a question about the allegations of deliberate inaction, being influenced and taking bribes from the accused persons, he said the allegations were baseless. He said the accused person was a proclaimed offender and they were taking every possible step to arrest him and hoped to arrest him very soon.
Ghulam Murtaza, SHO of the area said that the murder was a result of old enmity and infighting between two parties of the village for gaining influence. He said both the parties had been proclaimed offenders. They have taken every possible step to arrest the accused persons, he said.
He expressed his reservations and said this was a locality of Kacha, on the bank of River Sutlej. The precincts and limit of the police station fell on both sides of the river and the criminals would find hideouts easily, he said, adding that police were fully cooperating with the grieved parties and would raid whenever there was information about the accused persons. About the efforts of the complainant and applications to different authorities, he said the complainant was doing this just to build a pressure as he wanted blood money from the offender party. Efforts were made to talk to DPO Bahawalnagar but he was not available. —Muhammad Shahzad