Hyderabad:
Shikarpur police said on Tuesday that the first suspect who had killed the journalist for the Sukkur district – Jan Muhammad Mahar 20 months ago – was shot in an operation.
The SSP Shikarpur Shahzeb Chachar confirmed to the media that Sher Muhammad Mahar alias Sheral had been shot and that five to six of his accomplices were injured in the police action carried out in a river area within the limit of the Bachal Bhayo police station.
The police ‘claim, however, is considered by the family of the journalist killed who was shot in the Sukkur district on August 14, 2023. His brother and complain of his murder, Karamullah Mahar, said on a chain of news that their men had visited the hospital of Lakhi Ghulam Shah where the body of Sheral had been taken for post-mortem.
But, he said, they were not allowed to see the body. “We were happy and we welcomed each other when we heard of the death of Sheral, but we have a doubt that he was not killed in a police operation. He died of a cardiac arrest,” said Karamullah.
He also referred to the initial opinions of the legal agents of Medico who directed the post-mortem of Sheral and said that even the doctor had not specified how he had been killed. According to him, the accused’s corpse was placed on ice slabs in the health center. The SSP, meanwhile, argued that they stumbled on Sheral while looking for a Dacoit Nasrullah Jatoi.
According to him, the police operation assisted by the Rangers in the river regions of Shikarpur and other neighboring districts, has continued since October 2024. “Sheral was also our target. Their hiding place was destroyed.” Although the SSP said it had information on the injury of five or six suspects in the operation, the police could not get their hands on Sheral’s body.
Mahar was shot dead on Queens Road by armed men, driving a motorcycle, while going to his home from the office of his news channel around 9:15 p.m. He suffered three shots and died of his fatal injuries at Hira hospital two hours later.
His brother appointed 12 suspects with names in the FIR in more than four strangers. The accused included Sheral, Naseer Mahar, Qurban Mahar, Roshan Mahar, Gulzar Mahar and Mir Muhammad Mahar, and others, all the residents of the village of Chak in Shikarpur who were also the ancestral village of the journalist.
