Mirza booked under ATC for storming police station

BADIN/KARACHI: Former Sindh home minister Zulfiqar Mirza and 20 of his supporters were booked at the Model Town Police Station under charges of terrorism, harming public property, harassing a deputy superintendent of police (DSP), storming and ransacking a police station and manhandling officials in Badin on Sunday.Provisions of vandalism and an attempt to murder have also been included in the case.
Mirza stormed the Model Town Police Station in Badin with dozens of his armed guards after the police had arrested his friend Nadeem Mirza on suspicion of burglary.He kept threatening DSP Abdul Qadir Samoon and then broke the glass on his table and his cell phone.
Mirza then went out and got the shops and businesses nearby closed forcibly with the help of the dozens of armed men accompanying him.According to the DSP, the firing by Mirza’s supporters while forcibly shutting down shops resulted in an injury to a person.
Following the registration of the case, the police are conducting raids for the arrest of Mirza and his supporters.In reaction to the expected police action against Mirza, his supporters have started gathering at the Mirza Farmhouse and resistance is expected.
On the other hand, PPP activists, led by Taj Mallah, took to the roads, surrounded the police station, raised slogans against Mirza and demanded his arrest. There was a complete shutdown in the city while tension prevailed. More police contingents have been called for back-up, along with armoured personnel vehicles.
Meanwhile, PPP leaders and activists belonging to the Badin city have said that Zulfiqar Mirza has no link with the People’s Party and termed him a psychiatric patient who should be sent to a mental hospital.
Addressing a press conference at the residence of PPP District Secretary Dr Aziz Memon on Sunday, MNA Sardar Kamal Khan Chung, MPAs Muhammad Nawaz Chandio and Mir Allah Bux Talpur said that Mirza had parted ways with the party after he chose to do his self-styled politics. They claimed that Mirza, with his armed bodyguards, damaged several shops and beat the employees. They said that no one was above the law and the people of Sindh know who has used foul language against the PPP leadership and women.
Earlier, former home minister Sindh Dr Zulfiqar Mirza claimed that PPP Co-chairman Asif Zardari and Altaf Hussain wanted to break the country. He said the conspiracy of Zardari and Altaf would be foiled.
He said that Zardari and his sister had looted the country, particularly Sindh, and there was no end to their lust for money. Nadeem Mughal was abducted by PPP MNA Kamal Khan Chung and SSP Khalid Mustafa Korai so that he could be killed in a fake police encounter, he blamed.
Mirza said that he wanted to register a case of kidnapping but the police did not listen to him.

INP adds: Police registered a case against former Sindh home minister and estranged PPP leader Dr Zulfiqar Mirza and his aides under various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).
The FIR, moved by local trader leader Imtiaz Memon, was registered under sections 365, 395, 324, 337 h2 of the PPC and sections 6 and 7 of the ATA against Zulfiqar Mirza, 26 known and 60 unknown people at the Badin Model Police Station.
Dilber Sindhi, Peroze Shahani, and Abdul Wahid Chandio were among those nominated in the FIR.Earlier, the situation in Badin became tense when Zulfiqar Mirza, along with hundreds of his supporters, besieged the Model Police Station to get a case registered against alleged police excesses against his supporters in the Badin district.
Mirza alleged that his aide Nadeem Mughal had been taken into detention illegally and that was why he had gone to the police station with his supporters. He asked police officials to lodge an FIR based on complaints made by his aide Nadeem against PPP MNA Sardar Kamal Khan Chung, PPP Badin General Secretary Aziz Memon, Taj Mohammad Mallah, traders leader Imtiaz Ahmed Memon, and other PPP leaders and police officials.
Nadeem Mughal was allegedly arrested by the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) but was later released after a protest by his supporters.Prior to his entry in the police station, Mirza’s supporters and guards forcibly shut down Taj Mohammad Mallah’s and Imtiaz Ahmed’s shops. Both Mallah and Ahmed recently joined the PPP during Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah’s visit to Badin a few days back.
Zulfiqar Mirza claimed that Nadeem Mughal was whisked away at the behest of those against whom he had lodged complaints. While talking to the media, he said he would go to any extreme to protect his supporters from “wolves”.
Mirza warned former president Asif Ali Zardari and functionaries of the Sindh government to rein in their leaders and made it clear he was ready to be arrested for his cause. Mirza and his supporters dispersed from the police station after the police’s refusal to register an FIR.
Following calls from both Mirza’s group, as well as those of other PPP leaders, all shops and business centres in the area were shut down, while hundreds of workers staged a rally against what they referred to as “terrorism” by the disowned PPP leader Zulfiqar Mirza and his supporters.
Taj Mohammad Mallah, Imtiaz Ahmed Memon and others had strongly demanded the registration of an FIR against Mirza under the ATA. During the rally, some miscreants resorted to aerial firing, creating panic in the area. A heavy contingent of police and other law enforcement agencies were deployed in the city to avert any untoward incident.
In a statement on internet, MNA Sardar Kamal Chung strongly condemned Zulfiqar Mirza’s action, saying that PPP supporters would resist such “acts of terrorism”. He alleged that Zulfiqar Mirza behaved like a “dacoit, breaking the locks of shops and smashing the gate of a police station.”
Chung said that he was on his way to Badin to rectify the situation as, according to him, infuriated PPP workers had threatened to torch and besiege Mirza’s farmhouse at Mourjhar. Chang said that he had informed the leadership about the volatile situation in the city.
Online adds: Meanwhile, the Women Wing of Pakistan People’s Party held a press conference through the party’s media cell, giving an aggressive response to Zulfiqar Mirza.The women wing comprised Deputy Speaker Sindh Assembly Shehla Raza, Sharmeela Farooqi and other women workers of Pakistan People’s Party.