Trader claims he was kept in illegal detention by law enforcers for seven months

Sohrab Goth police refute claims, say he was an extortionist.

KARACHI: A local trader, who had been illegally detained by law enforcement agencies several months ago, claimed that the law enforcement agencies were misusing the free-hand given to them by the government by extorting bribes out of the innocent instead of tackling the real criminals.

The trader, Saeedal, claimed that he had been kept in detention for several months before being freed due to the intervention of the court. The Ittehad Tajiran-e-Committee al Asif Square leader was addressing a press conference at Karachi Press Club on Monday. He claimed that, on April 4, the former in-charge of Sohrab Goth police station, accompanied by Rangers personnel, had picked him and his brothers in a fake operation. His brothers and other people arrested during the operation were released, however, he had been kept in illegal detention, he said.

Saeedal claimed that police had tortured him and his brother, Qudratullah, because they had protested against the extortion mafia in Sohrab Goth. He added that four local traders, including his cousin, were also murdered by the extortionists on the first of Ramzan at al Asif Square. He said this case was under trial in the Anti-Terrorism Court and he was also a complainant in the case.



Saeedal revealed that he had been illegally detained by the law enforcers for about five months, after which he was released in Islamabad without any identification papers. Soon after, the FIA had arrested him on suspicions of being an illegal immigrant and sent him to Adiyala Jail. He was later presented before a court which had ordered his immediate release, but the order had not been implemented. Later, his brothers had sent his identity papers to the federal government and Supreme Court of Pakistan, on whose orders he was finally released. “In this way, after having been illegally detained for about seven months, I am present before you today. My only crime was to raise my voice against extortionists.”

The trader demanded the government prevent the police and agencies from harassing innocent people and traders in the garb of operations and direct their focus towards the criminals, killers and extortionists.

Meanwhile, Sohrab Goth police refuted the allegations made by the ‘so-called’ trader. “He is an extortionist,” Sohrab Goth SHO Muhammad Shoaib told The Express Tribune. “We had conducted a raid at the Chohta Plaza and now we are going to launch an operation in the Bara Plaza of the Sohrab Goth. They (so-called traders) do not want our operation in the Bara Plaza, which is why they are plotting this conspiracy.” The officer said that the traders were occupying the residences in al Asif Square illegally and owed huge amounts of dues to the utility service providers.With additional reporting by PPI

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th,2013.