Nine killed in Pindi gunbattle between rival groups

RAWALPINDI: In a gun battle in Chauntra, nine people – five women, three minor girls and a boy – were killed, three other children were injured critically on Friday evening.

The injured have been shifted to hospitals while the bodies have transported to District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ) for post mortem.

City Police Officer (CPO) along with SSP (Operations) and SP (Sadr) reached the scene with heavy contingents of police and Elite Force commandoes and cordoned off the area but no arrest has been made till the filing of this report. However, search operations were going on in villages of the surrounding localities.

The shooting occurred in village Miyal falling in the jurisdiction of Chauntra police station when a group equipped with lethal weapons attacked a house to take revenge of killing of a woman who was shot dead the previous day by the other group, police said.

The attackers targetedwomen and children of their rivals to avenge killing of their woman, the police, quoting the people who witnessed the massacre said. The police said that the assailants chose the time to hit their rivals’ houses when their men were not there. “The assailants stormed into the rivals house and opened firing targeting women and minor girls,” the witnesses said and added that children and women tried to escape but most of them caught in the range of firing.

The people whose houses were attacked, rushed to the scene upon hearing firing but the attackers had fled away to their hideouts but the other groups reaching there resulted in the gunbattle between two rival groups – Azhar Imtiaz group and Rab Nawaz group, the police said.

Preliminary investigation reports confirmed that firing incident between two confronting groups was result of old rivalry and family disputes in Miyal village.

The firing incident reportedly occurred between the groups of Rabnawaz, Azhar Nazar, Imtiaz and Amjad on account of old enmity, said in the report. A spokesperson for Rawalpindi police said that the firing incident occurred on account of killing of a woman due to family rivalry a few days back and the opponents attacked the house and targeted women and children with gun shots.

Miyal village is 40km from Rawalpindi near Rawat and following the firing incident majority of injured died due unavailability of medical facility around. All the victims were taken to District Headquarters Hospital for medico-legal formalities. As per villagers, the entire area gripped in fear following the firing incident as firing was so intensive that all the villagers stuck inside homes.

Five women killed in the incident were identified as Salima Arshad, wife of Irshad, Nisar Bibi, wife of Ahmad, Sidra Bibi, wife of Azhar, Azra Bibi, wife of Nazar Abbas, Abida Shaheen, wife of Ghulam Abbas, Emaan Fatima (child), daughter of Azhar, Waqar, 7, son of Azhar, Ghazala Bibi, 13, daughter of Azhar, Mubeena Khatoon, 16, daughter of Azhar.

While, Noor Fatima, daughter of Nazar Abbas and his two sons, Usman and Ibrahim were injured critically. The CPO, later, constituted three teams led by SSP (Operations) and SP (Sadr) to arrest the people involved in the killing, police said. Grand operation was expected in the wee hours of Saturday, police sources said and added that raid on the hideouts would be conducted with the thorough search operation in and around the area.

Five ambulances of Rescue 1122 also reached the scene to rescue and shift the bodies and injured to hospital. The police disclosed that Rabnawaz, who is convicted under Section 302 and Section 324 was released on bail to attend funeral of a killed woman in the family three days back.

Despite knowing that Rabnawaz has remained a proclaimed offender, Sadr Division police and SHO Chauntra police showed negligence and did not take quick action following the murder of a woman three days back.