The Shikarpur police claimed on Tuesday that the most important suspect who killed the SUKKUR district-based journalist-Jan Muhammad Mahar 20 months ago-has been abolished in an operation.

SSP Shikarpur Shahzeb Chachahar confirmed to the media that Sher Muhammad Mahar alias Sheral was shot to death and five to six of his accomplices sustained injuries to police action performed in a river area at the border of Bachal Bhayo police station.

However, the police’s claim is seen as aescale by the family of the slain journalist who was shot to death in the SUKKUR district on August 14, 2023.

But, he said, they were not allowed to see the body. “We were happy and we congratulated each other when we heard about Sheral’s death, but we have doubts that he was not killed in a police operation. He died rather of a cardiac arrest,” Karamullah claimed.

He also referred to the first views of the medical legal officers who completed Sheral’s postmortem and said that even the doctor did not manage how he was killed. According to him, the defendant’s dead body was placed on ice plates in the health facility. Meanwhile, SSP maintained that they stumbled over sheral while searching for a sought -after dacoit nasrullah jatoi.

According to him, Rangers-Assisted Police Operation in the river areas of Shikarpur and other nearby districts continues since October 2024. “Sheral was also our goal. Their hide was destroyed.” Although SSP claimed to have information about harming five or six suspects during surgery, police could only put their hands on Sheral’s body.

Mahar was shot to death on Queens Road by armed men and was driving on a motorcycle when he was on his way to his home from the office of his news channel around 2 p.m. 21.15. He sustained three shots and succumbed to his deadly damage to Hira Hospital two hours later.

His brother nominated 12 suspects with names in FIR beyond four unknowns. The defendant included Sheral, Naseer Mahar, Quran Mahar, Roshan Mahar, Gulzar Mahar and Mir Muhammad Mahar and others, all residents of the Chak Village in Shikarpur, who also happened to be the Journal’s ancestral village.