Mistaken for kidnappers: Police ‘arrest’ NAB, Rangers men to rescue Larkana clerk

Friends of influential official Asad Kharal come to his aid

SUKKUR: In what is perhaps a demonstration of the sort of influence some government officials wield in Larkana, police arrested officials from the National Accountability Bureau and Sindh Rangers on charges of kidnapping an official who had been detained for questioning, officials confirmed.

The detention also sparked protests in Larkana on Wednesday.

Late on Tuesday night, Asad Kharal (whose real name is Mohammad Ali Kharal), a junior clerk at the Taluka Municipal Administration in Bakrani district of Larkana, was going home when officials from the National Accountability Bureau (Nab) in Hyderabad and Sindh Rangers dressed in plain clothes, intercepted him at Otha Chowk in Dari and detained him.

The officials wanted to question him about his alleged role in two corruption cases worth Rs500 million, in addition to being linked with several criminals.

As law enforcers detained Kharal, his friend called a local influential claiming that the junior clerk was being kidnapped. The influential, said to be close to Sindh Home Minister Sohail Anwar Sial, rushed to the spot along with his guards and overpowered the NAB and Rangers’ officials and took them to Dari police station.

SSP Larkana Kamran Nawaz also rushed to Dari station and escorted everyone to Civil Lines Police Station. Meanwhile, a high-ranking Rangers’ official reached the Civil Lines station and stopped the police from lodging an FIR.

Officials at the Civil Lines Police Station, however, denied that anyone was brought to the station. Dari Police Station, however, confirmed the incident. Assistant Head Constable Abdul Hafeez said that some private guards and police officials brought Kharal and another man to the precincts on Tuesday night before the SSP arrived and took them all to the Civil Lines station.

He claimed that Kharal was close to Sial’s younger brother Tanveer. His closeness with the Sial family, however, was evidenced in how the home minister rushed to Larkana on Wednesday and ordered the local DIG to conduct an inquiry into the matter.

Rangers also confirmed that their personnel were involved in the incident adding that influential friends of the suspect interfered with their duty. “Acting on confirmed reports, Sindh Rangers in Larkana questioned a man named Asad Kharal. During this some influential friends of Kharal tried to stop officials from carrying out their duties,” read a statement from the Sindh Rangers’ spokesperson.

However, the Sindh government dismissed the incident as a case of misunderstanding. “The incident involving law enforcing personnel in Larkana was a result of a misunderstanding,” said Sindh information adviser Moula Bux Chandio in Karachi on Wednesday.

He explained that in rural Sindh, kidnappers abduct their targets at night. He pointed to the fact that the officials were dressed in plain clothes which caused the misunderstanding that Kharal was being kidnapped.

Chandio clarified that no PPP minister or office bearer was associated with the incident.

Meanwhile, informed sources in Larkana claim Kharal left Larkana overnight and has either gone into hiding in Karachi or travelled abroad to Dubai.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2016.