PTI leader booked for firing outside opponent's house

Nawab Zaid Talpur is already convicted for manhandling policemen earlier

HYDERABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's Umerkot-based leader Nawab Zaid Talpur has been booked in an FIR for allegedly firing shots outside the residence of a Pakistan Peoples Party leader, Nawab Yousuf Talpur. The gatekeeper, Abdul Khaliq Bhatti, sustained a gunshot to his arm in the incident.

On Bhatti's complaint, Umerkot police registered an FIR on Saturday booking Zaid and four others. Zaid is already a convict in the case of charging upon a police station.

Nawab Yousuf Talpur has been elected on the National Assembly's constituency from Umerkot, defeating PTI's vice-chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi for the second time - the first being in the 2013 general elections.



His son, Nawaz Taimur Talpur, has been elected on a provincial assembly seat. Both were not at their residence at the time of the incident.

According to the FIR's complainant, Zaid Talpur and his associates fired gunshots outside Yousuf's residence near Kunri, a rural town in Umerkot. The police have still not arrested the suspects.

Speaking to local media, Zaid Talpur said he was unaware of any such incident. "I am not a goon who would do this." He demanded that an impartial inquiry be conducted to ascertain the facts of the incident.

The PTI allied with the Grand Democratic Alliance to contest the July 25 elections against the PPP. However, the two parties were defeated on the district's only NA and two PS seats by the latter.

On May 28, a local court in Umerkot had convicted Zaid Talpur and four others with six months' imprisonment in the case of manhandling policemen in a police station. Talpur's son, Hassan Talpur, is also among the convicts who were arrested after the verdict and shifted to Umerkot sub jail. However, they later secured a bail from the Sindh High Court.



On May 2, 2017, the convicts charged upon the police station. A video of the incident which was shard on social media showed Zaid occupying the chair of the Station House Officer and misbehaving with the policemen. Ten persons were booked in the FIR, two of whom have died while three others have been acquitted.

The case was registered on the police complaint and included Sections 147, 148, 149, 150, 353 and 504 of Pakistan Penal Code.