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Friday March 29, 2024

JI MPA Abdur Rasheed, 40 workers booked in Lyari riots cases

By our correspondents
July 31, 2022

Police have registered a case against a member of the provincial assembly belonging to the Jamaat-e-Islami and over 40 others for disturbing law and order in Lyari.

The FIR has been lodged under sections 147, 148, 149, 341, 353 and 186 of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the state against MPA Abdur Rasheed, Jawwad Shoaib, Sajid, Uzair Khan, Iqbal Niazi, Abdur Rehman, Malik, Haroon and 30 to 35 unknown persons at the Chakiwara police station.

The case was registered a day on Saturday, a day after a clash between workers of the JI and the Pakistan Peoples Party in the Chakiwara area. The police placed sections in the FIR pertaining to riots and blocking roads.

Shortly before registering the case, the district city police had issued a statement regarding JI leader Abdul Rasheed for taking action against him. Officials said legal action would be taken against JI workers and leader for staging a sit-in and blocking a road.

The district city police said the JI was respectable for the police, but MPA Rasheed had been protesting for a few days now, and it was unforgivable, as he had taken the law into his hands by blocking the road 25 times in 15 days.

The statement said MPA Rasheed had joined “the politics of sewers” and also kidnapped employees of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board and held them hostage. “We are employees of the police; we are not employees of the Water and Sewerage Board. Strict legal action will be taken against whoever has touched the uniform of the police, against all those involved in the incident. FIRs are being filed. They will be made a lesson,” said the police statement.

The SSP City Office said the security of Muharram processions was also threatened due to MPA Rasheed and his miscreants and it should be noted that workers who were with the MPA were wearing masks, and when they were stopped on the basis of suspicion to prevent a clash between the two parties, weapons were found on them. It can be inferred from this that Jamaat-e-Islami MPA Abdul Rasheed wanted to cause bloodshed in Lyari, he added.

No arrest was made in the case, but the police said that arrests would be made soon.

Earlier in the day, MPA Rasheed and several workers and supporters staged a protest outside the office of the District City SSP against Friday’s clash with PPP, police action against the JI workers and supporters and their arrests.

The protesters shouted slogans against the police. They also blocked the flow of traffic. Following the protest, the police registered a case for blocking the road and staging a protest outside the SSP office at the Baghdadi police station.

JI protesters accused the police of supporting the PPP and demanded of police high-ups to take action against police officials for supporting the rivalry political party in Lyari.

JI warns of protest

Jamaat-e-Islami Karachi chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has warned the Sindh government that the party will call for a protest over the government’s inability to handle civic crises in Karachi, particularly in the aftermath of the ongoing monsoon rains. Addressing a press conference at Idara Noor-e-Haq — the party’s headquarters, here on Saturday, he said that in the near future, the JI would be announcing a new phase of the Karachi Rights Movement — a new leaf in the resistance movement in the country.

He said the Pakistan Peoples Party’s government in Sindh had kept Karachi purposely deprived of its mayor under the influence of a feudal mindset that prevailed in the party.

Rehman said Sindh Local Bodies Minister Nasir Hussain Shah’s apology was insufficient as the people in Karachi wanted accountability for the Rs5,000 billion development budget allocated during the past 14 years.

The provincial government had become a symbol of corruption and incapability, he said, adding that the conspiracy to keep Karachi deprived of its elected mayor and to further delay the local government elections would not be tolerated at any cost.

He said that unfortunately, Karachi was not on the agenda of any political party, and the JI had written another letter to the Election Commission of Pakistan for immediate local bodies’ elections.

Talking about the recent developments concerning the political arena, he reiterated his demand for a forensic audit of the K-Electric’s accounts. Arif Naqvi, the head of Abraaj Group, has been a friend of all ruling parties, and those sheltering the private power company are not friends of the state, he said.

Rehman said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan and the Pakistan Peoples Party all were responsible for imposing the KE regime on Karachi and Karachiites. “All the four parties took part in turning the private company into a mafia.”

The JI leader also demanded of the PPP’s top leadership to look into the party affairs in Lyari where “goons under cover of the PPP and with the support of area police” attacked the JI’s protest camp.

Later, he said, the police arrested JI MPA Syed Abdul Rasheed and 15 other party workers. This type of fascism was not acceptable, he said.

JI-PPP clash

An atmosphere of apprehension prevailed in Lyari on Friday after the clash between PPP and JI workers.

Four JI workers were reportedly injured during the clash, while the party claimed that police detained its 15 workers, including MPA Abdur Rasheed.

Under the leadership of Rasheed, the JI had set up a protest camp in Lyari’s Bihar Colony against choked sewerage lines, which had badly affected the lives of the residents. The workers and supporters of the PPP arrived at the camp and allegedly started fighting with the JI workers, injuring Zahoor, Malik Kamran, Junaid and Huzaifa. The injured were taken to the Civil Hospital Karachi for medical assistance. The JI claimed that police, instead of taking action against the PPP workers, detained its workers. Following the incident, a large number of JI workers and supporters gathered outside the Chakiwara police station and staged a protest.