Batkhela killings: Levies granted four-day physical remand of accused

BATKHELA: The alleged killers of the nine members of a family were handed over to the Malakand Levies on a four-day physical remand, officials said on Saturday. The main accused Usama and his three other accomplices were produced in a local court that granted their four-day judicial remand to the Levies force.

Usama and his accomplices had allegedly forced their entry into the house in Bagarda area in Batkhela tehsil in Malakand district and opened indiscriminate fire on the inmates, killing five women, three men and a child of a family.

Assistant Commissioner Shakil Khan said that the gunmen led by the main accused Usama had forced their entry into the house of Hussain Shah and opened indiscriminate fire on the family members when they were asleep.

As a result, three men identified as Zuhran, Hussain Shah and his son Hazrat Bilal, and five women named Habibul Haram Bibi, wife of Hussain Shah and his daughters Rabia Bibi, Hizra Bibi, Hazrat Ruqia bibi, and Saima Bibi, wife of Aizaz, were killed.

Two other members of the family also sustained injuries while a 12-year-old boy and two minor girls miraculously remained unharmed in the bloodbath. The assailant fled the scene after committing the crime.

However, AC Shakil Khan said alleged prime accused Usama along with two his accomplices was arrested within six hours after the gruesome incident from the Barikot area in Swat by the Malakand Levies personnel.

He said that the accused and the victims were relatives and a domestic issue was running between the families.

He said that a woman from the victim’s family had strained relations with the family of her father-in-law and had come to her parents’ home, who was also killed in the incident.

He said that the husband of the slain woman and

others were arrested for investigation.