Extortion charges: Police arrest Dr Zulfiqar Mirza’s aide

HYDERABAD: Months after his release from police custody, a close associate of Pakistan Peoples Party’s dissident leader Dr Zulfiqar Mirza has been re-arrested under charges of seeking extortion. Mehboob Abro’s supporters and family claim his arrest is an act of political victimisation by the Sindh government owing to his association with Mirza. Inspector Aslam Langha, in-charge of the police’s Crime Investigation Agency, which arrested Abro on Tuesday, said he has been booked on charges of terrorism and extortion in an FIR registered at Qasimabad police station on the complaint of a cable operator. On Wednesday, Abro was produced in an anti-terrorism court which handed him over into police custody for 15 days. Abro, a former Nazim of Qasimabad union council, Hyderabad, was earlier arrested in 2014.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st,  2016.