Aalim Bheel has announced that his family was under tremendous pressure from powerful and influential figures of the area to patch up with the accused, who were charged with the inhumane torture and subsequent death of his brother, Dodo Bheel.
Aalim, talking to the group of journalists from Islamkot who visited their village, confirmed the reports about the patch-ups as true and said that as per the conditions of the agreement, he would submit the required documents during the upcoming hearing in the district and sessions courts in Mithi town.
“We don’t have enough money to hire the lawyers to plead the murder case and to foil the attempts of getting bail by those who were directly or indirectly involved in the murder of my brother,” he added and confirmed that he had submitted the no objection certificate (NOC) in Sindh High Court during the previous hearing in favour of the accused, including Kashif Raza aka Commando, Huzefia Malik and others.
Aalim said that he took the extreme step of pardon after some notables of the area approached them for a patch-up with the prime accused and others in exchange of Rs10 million and job offers to five youths of the family in the mining company.
“We family members, including my mother, the wife of murdered Dodo and others, mulled over the offer for days and then decided to pardon the accused through proper channels,” he said. Aalim furthered that they were also running off the money given to them by the high-ups of the Sindh government in their legal fight with his brother’s killers.
“We also took the bitter pill keeping in view the future of the kids and wife of Dodo Bheel,” he added with misty eyes.
Aalim said that they refused to receive the cheque of Rs2mn ahead of the last court hearing and insisted that they would only get the entire amount of Rs10mn as per the agreement brokered by some influentials of the area. He claimed that as per the conditions of the deal, the mining company would hire five close relatives of Dodo’s, and the high-ups of the mining company would meet all the expenses of the studies of his kids as well.
Karno Bheel, the father of the murdered Dodo Bheel and his mother, also confirmed that they had agreed to pardon the accused, having found no way out under the given situation. Karno added that the accused officials of the mining firm had also sent their family members, who requested for the patch-up as per existing laws to settle such matters.
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Tharparkar Information Secretary Nandlal Malhi in a press statement issued to the media persons, held the leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) responsible for pressing the relatives of Dodo Bheel to pardon the accused, adding that from the very first day, PTI leaders including advocate Lajpat Soorani and his associates, misguided the relatives of the victim for getting the political mileage of the dreadful act.
“All those who shed crocodile tears only did dirty politics on the gruesome incident,” he added and claimed that such elements were hurling baseless accusations on PPP leaders.
He said that it was PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto, who took prompt notice and directed the Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to form a ministerial committee to probe the killing of the poor peasant.
Malhi said that within a few days of the incident, they reached Dodo’s village to sympathise and console the aggrieved family members and announced Rs10mn as compensation for his family. He added they wanted a fair trial of all the accused nominated in the FIR but the unnecessary and criminal interference by the leaders of PTI, greatly benefited the actual killers.
The killers, said Malhi, managed to broker a deal with the complainants, and now all the accused would get relief by paying some amount. He added that PPP leaders would strongly resist any move by the accused to get a job in any mining company, if they were acquitted, in light of the rapprochement made between the accused and the heirs of the murdered man.
