Police register second FIR in picket attack case

The setting up of a police picket in Khanyari, a rural town in Khairpur district continues to stir a conflict between the police and the local people.

Oolice have registered a second FIR in two weeks against the local community that backs the anti-PPP alliance.

As many as 79 people including an influential figure Arsalan Bhanbhan have been booked in the new FIR which also contains a section of Anti Terrorism Act.

Arsalan is the son of former MPA Dr Muhammad Rafiq Bhanbhan, who was elected in 2018 from the same area on Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) ticket.

Arsalan was also nominated in the first FIR along with around 150 known and unknown people. The SHO of Akri Chodgi police station Yar Muhammad Bhayo, who is the complainant in the FIR, alleged that two cops were injured in the mob attack on the picket on Thursday night.

According to him, police constable Khan Muhammad Khaskheli sustained a gunshot allegedly fired by the mob while the picket in charge Khadim Amir was hit by a stone during the attack. The SHO stated that the picket in charge informed him on phone that a man named Munawar Bhanbhanh had threatened the cops to vacate the picket or be ready to face the consequences.

Later, the cops from five police stations reached the picket. "When we reached there, Rafiq Bhanbhan and Arsalan also intimidated us over the phone saying, if we don't leave the picket there will be repercussions for us."

Subsequently, the SHO alleged, a crowd of 80 to 90 locals came to the picket shouting that the police should have left the place after the call of their tribal chief. The complainant claimed that the police have found the shells of the fired bullets and from the place of the incident.

The picket was set up in a vacant building of a telephone exchange in Khanyari. Azam Channa, who is also booked in the case, meanwhile, claimed that he owned the land on which the building was constructed. A similar, albeit less violent, confrontation between the two sides occurred on November 1.

The same SHO lodged an FIR on the state's complaint against the local people, also nominating Arsalan for allegedly warning them over phone against establishing the picket. The former MPA, meanwhile, accused the police of politically victimising them because of their association with the GDA.