About nine PML-N offices set on fire across Sindh

Party leaders enraged by government’s efforts to ‘suppress the opposition’.

HYDERABAD/SUKKUR: The repercussions of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Shahbaz Sharif’s anti-government comments have reverberated through Sindh. His use of ‘un-parliamentary language’ against President Asif Ali Zardari prompted attacks on party offices by unidentified men in cities of upper Sindh late on Saturday night and early Sunday morning.

On Saturday night, nine offices of the PML-N were attacked by unidentified men in Sukkur, Jacobabad, Kandhkot, Larkana and Warah, but police has not registered their complaint. In Sukkur, a group of men on motorcycles raided the house of the PML-N Sukkur district president Sarwar Latif and opened fire. The men also threw petrol bombs but left once Latif’s guards reacted. The men also tried to attack PML-N offices near the racecourse but were unsuccessful. While talking to The Express Tribune, Latif condemned the attack and said that the police was not ready to register their complaint. He add that the Sukkur SSP and SHOs were not taking his phone calls.

In Jacobabad, a group of unidentified men torched the PML-N office in Lehri Muhalla. In Kandhkot, some people attacked the PML-N office and set portraits of party leaders on fire. They managed to escape. No cases had been registered when this report was filed. In Larkana, men set the PML-N office in Miro Khan Chowk on fire, but the fire brigade managed to blow it out.

PML-N leaders react

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) will respond to the attacks on its offices in Sindh by bringing the ‘go Zardari go’ movement to the province, says MNA Khawaja Saad Rafique.

A special press conference was called on Sunday in reaction to incidents of arson at PML-N offices and the alleged arrest of their workers and leaders across the province. Rafique addressed the media and Saleem Zia, Afzal Gujjar, Hanif Siddiqui and other provincial leaders of the party at the press conference via telephone.

The Nawaz-League’s fervid leader accused the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party of trying to oppress their opponents using underhanded tactics. According to Saleem Zia, nine of the party’s offices in Larkana, Jacobabad, Jamshoro, Khairpur, Nawabshah and Kandhkot have been burnt while several workers, including party leader Badar Soomro, have been detained.

Rafique claimed that the PML-N’s rally in Lahore has been proven a success by the ruling party’s reaction. Diverting his tirade towards the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, he obliquely implicated the party in the attacks as well. “The MQM can take out rallies and burn our offices, but our movement will only get stronger.”

Saleem Zia demanded that the Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Home Minister Manzoor Wassan to tell the country who was behind the attacks on the PML-N offices. Zia said that Nawaz Sharif will visit the burnt offices and the party will continue to protest until the government arrests the culprits.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 31^st,  2011.