Police again besiege high court for arrest of Dr. Mirza

KARACHI: A heavy contingent of police backed by Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) and masked commandoes of the Special Security Unit (SSU) on Saturday besieged the Sindh High Court (SHC) building and rounded up over two dozen supporters of disgruntled Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Zulfiqar Mirza while journalists covering the incident were also subjected to manhandling.
Disgruntled PPP leader and former Sindh home minister Zulfiqar Mirza reached the SHC on Saturday after he was not allowed to appear before an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) for the extension in his bail before arrest but when he headed to the SHC, a heavy contingent of police besieged the court building to arrest him.
Later on Saturday night, reporters and cameramen covering the press conference of the SSP South Ch. Asad boycotted the police official’s news conference, demanding the identification and arrest of the SSU personnel who were hiding their faces when they subjected newsmen and cameramen to violence outside the SHC.
Police high-ups including DIG West Feroz Shah and SSP South wanted to show the men arrested outside the SHC along with their ‘heavy weapons’ but journalists boycotted the news conference in protest against the violence against them, arguing that unless the people behind the torture and manhandling of journalists are identified and taken to task, the media would not cover the activities of the police.
Three employees of Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza had been arrested on Friday by the South Zone police when a large number of police — led by SSP South Ch. Asad — had besieged the residence of Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza and took a gunman, a driver and a domestic servant of Dr. Mirza into custody.
On Saturday evening, around 24 more supporters of Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza were arrested by the police and when reporters and cameramen of different news organizations tried to cover and report the incident, masked commandoes of the SSU, who were clad in plain clothes, snatched the cameras from some journalists and on their protest, the masked commandoes manhandled them.
Journalists covering the incident held a protest demonstration outside the Sindh High Court, chanted slogans against the Sindh police and Special Security Unit and demanded action against all the police officials who ordered and subjected police personnel to torture and violence.
Police claimed that only six gunmen of Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza were arrested by the police, including four who were from the tribal areas, and added that illegal weapons including M4 rifles, submachine guns and Light Machine Guns were recovered from their possession.
Senior police officials including DIG South Dr. Jameel Ahmed, who was on leave officially, was present outside the Sindh High Court along with SSP Ch. Asad, while SSU Chief Maqsood Memon along with former military instructors of the force were also supervising the arrests of Dr. Mirza’s supporters and the violence against the media persons.
The siege of the SHC was only lifted by the police when on the directives from the SHC, Sindh Rangers’ personnel reached the court and shifted Zulfiqar Mirza to his residence in Defence Phase V.
Later, talking to newsmen, DIG West Feroz Shah claimed that the police had only gone to the SHC to provide ‘protection’ to Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza, who had threats to his life and claimed that the police arrested several terrorists from in front of the SHC. He said they had sophisticated weapons and four of them belonged to FATA.
The Darkhshan police on Saturday registered three more cases, FIR nos. 293, 294 and 295 against three employees of Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza for possessing illegal weapons, who had been arrested yesterday by the police when a heavy contingent of police had raided the residence of Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza.
SHO Darakshan police Abdul Moeed while talking to The News said they had registered an FIR against Naek Muhammad Nohani from Thatta, Sikandar Ali Brohi from Thatta and Muhammad Ibrahim from Lyari under section 23-A.
Police had claimed that they had arrested the three alleged notorious terrorists, some of them affiliated with Lyari gangsters, who were carrying illegal weapons including SMGs.