Blazing accusations: Inquiry report on attacks on PML-N offices suggest no foul play

DIG of Sukkur accuses PML-N of orchestrating attacks.

KARACHI:

An inquiry report into the arson attacks on the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) offices in Sindh says that no criminals were involved as the police have not found any evidence of foul play.

Instead, the report suggested that the PML-N had orchestrated the incidents in an attempt to frame prominent parliamentarians belonging to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). About nine offices of the PML-N were set ablaze on the night of October 29.

Following the incident, several members of the PML-N accused the PPP of using underhanded tactics against it. The Sindh government initiated a probe into the attacks and directed the DIG of Sukkur to submit a report within two days.

The DIG said that no PML-N offices were set on fire in Sukkur, Ghotki and Naushero Feroz and that no witness reports existed either. Some statements of the SSP of Khairpur were also incorporated into the report. The SSP said that a poster of the PML-N had been damaged when men opened fire on it on October 29, but the situation was swiftly handled by the police. The SHO of the Section-B police station in Sukkur also denied criminal activity in his jurisdiction. The report also denied that the occurrence of a petrol bomb attack on the house of the PML-N’s Sukkur district president, Sarwar Latif.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 3^rd, 2011.