Khalid Soomro murder; JUI-F withdraws protest call for December 27

Five suspects in the case were produced in an ATC earlier in the day.

SUKKUR: To the relief of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) withdrew its protest call for December 27 after five suspects accused of involvement in the murder of party leader Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro were produced in court on Wednesday.

The announcement was made by Dr Soomro's son, Nasir Mehmood Soomro, during a press conference held in Madrassa Hamadia Manzil Gah, Sukkur, on Wednesday evening.

JUI-F had earlier threatened a wheel-jam strike and the blocking of all the roads leading to Garhi Khuda Buksh on December 27, the death anniversary of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.



"Today, our eyewitnesses identified all five accused suspects in an identification parade," said Nasir. "One more suspect has yet to be apprehended." He also appreciated the efforts of Sukkur SSP Tanveer Hussain Tunio and Larkana DIG Saen Rakhio Mirani in arresting the suspects. "With the arrest of the murderers, one of our demands has been met," he said. "We still want to know who the persons behind the murder of our father are, and our protest movement will continue until the plotters are arrested."

Party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman announced the withdrawal of the protest planned for December 27, keeping in view the requests of the PPP leadership.

Suspects remanded

Earlier, the Sukkur anti-terrorism court sent the five accused suspects on physical remand for fifteen days.

A heavy contingent of the Sukkur police produced Muhammad Hanif Bhutto, police constable Sarang Ali Totani, Mushtaq Mahar, Altaf Jamali and Darya Khan Jamali in court amid tight security. The roads leading to the court were blocked and the area's shopkeepers were asked to pull their shutters down.

The suspects were later taken to the Sukkur district and sessions court in order to record their statements and have them identified by the complainant and the eyewitnesses. They were then shifted to an undisclosed location.

Dr Soomro, the JUI-F Sindh secretary-general, was gunned down by armed men while he was offering Fajr prayers in the Jamia Haqania mosque in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Sukkur, on November 29.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2014.