Businessman in Nkhata Bay on Sunday shot three people over land dispute.

The businessman, Haroon Karim is said to have bought a piece of land where he built a cottage from Evason Chirwa family at Jiriki Village in the area of Traditional Authority Malanda in Nkhata Bay District.

According to Police Publicist for Nkhata Bay District, Kondwani James, two years later Karim bought an extra piece of land from the same family to extend his cottage and this created disagreements with some members of the Chirwa family.

“Some members of the family were not pleased to allow Karim own the extra piece of land saying the land in question is a graveyard hence it was inhabitable,” said James.

He added that on August 5, 2018, Karim ordered his workers to clear path which was to be a boundary mark of his premises and this annoyed some members of the Chirwa family.

James further said the protesting family members mobilized themselves armed with dangerous weapons and threatened to deal with Karim’s workers.
The Publicist said Karim interfered by firing in the air using a pump gun type of riffle to scare away the people.

“Immediately after the warning shot, one of the protesters advanced towards Karim to attempt to snatch the firearm and in the process, the trigger was accidentally pulled and released some bullets which landed on three people,” he said.

Police identified the three victims as Limanda Chirwa aged 58, Livinas Phiri aged 53 of Jiriki village and Evason Chirwa aged 69 of Mpita Village all from the Area of TA Malanda in Nkhata Bay.

He said soon after the incident, Karim took the victims to Nkhata Bay District Hospital where they were admitted as in-patients for treatment.