KARACHI, July 1: Retribution killings, tribal style, left 15 people dead in Pakistan's southern Sindh province, the authorities said today. A longstanding tribal feud erupted into a fierce rocket and machine gun exchange yesterday in the remote Shikarpur district, 400 kms north of the southern port city of Karachi, they said.

The feud between the Jagirani and Jatoi tribes is an old one, although the authorities are unclear what prompted the latest round of killings. They suspected it might have been over a land dispute. Police reportedly arrested 20 people involved in the shootout.

In a separate incident, a family of seven was lined up and shot in Tando Adan, 200 kms northeast of Karachi, also in southern Sindh province. According to villagers the family was killed because bandits, who plague rural Sindh, were denied protection money. That account could not be independently confirmed.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.