Jamshoro, Dadu closed to protest SUP man killing in ‘staged’ encounter

Commercial activities in Bhan Saeedabad, Sehwan, Kotri talukas paralysed by the protest.

HYDERABAD/ BHAN SAEEDABAD:

Shops and businesses in parts of Dadu and Jamshoro districts remained closed on Friday to protest against the killing of a Sindh United Party (SUP) worker.

Commercial activities in Bhan Saeedabad taluka of Dadu, and Sehwan and Kotri talukas of Jamshoro district were paralysed by the protest.

The SUP worker, Taj Muhammad Solangi, was killed in what the police claimed was an encounter in Pir Shakh area of Jamshoro. Jamshoro SSP Farrukh Bashir said that the police and three suspected robbers shot at each other in Pir Shakh area. Two men fled while one was shot and later died. Bashir said that Solangi was named in four FIRs, including one for murder, in Dadu.

The Solangi community and SUP workers staged demonstrations and blocked highways in Bhan Saeedabad and Sehwan talukas. An SUP leader, Roshan Ali Buriro, led a sit-in on the Indus Highway in Bhan Saeedabad with Solangi’s body.

Asghar Solangi, who was present at the protest claimed that the Railway Colony House police raided and arrested four people, including Taj Mohammad Solangi. They alleged that the encounter in which he died was staged and his body was later thrown in a sugarcane field.

“The police staged a fake encounter and threw his dead body in the sugarcane field,” he said. The protesters demanded that an FIR be registered against SSP Bashir and all those involved.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 21^st, 2012.