Rangers operations being influenced politically: ANP

ANP warns hold protests if action is not taken against Rangers for arresting its workers.

KARACHI: The Awami National Party (ANP) on Friday warned the Sindh government that it will move court and hold protests if action is not taken against Rangers for arresting its workers.

Speaking to the media, ANP leader Bashir Jan said that Rangers arrested more than 500 workers of the ANP during a crackdown on Thursday night.

Although the majority of those arrested have been released, 150 are in still in Rangers' custody.

Jan said that Rangers should conduct an operation in the ‘no-go’ areas of Karachi adding that the Rangers are being influenced politically to arrest ANP workers.

Earlier in  the day, ANP senators walked out from the Senate session to protest against the arrests of their workers.

An ANP spokesman said that the Rangers called its parties workers for a meeting but arrested them, warning that the party will quit the coalition government in Sindh if its workers are not released.

Late last night, Rangers cordoned off the Soldier Bazaar area for a search operation while the Crime Investigation Department (CID) seized and recovered weapons from a bus in Saddar.

Rangers spokesperson Major Farooq Bilal told the Express Tribune that all men held last night have been released from their custody. “Some who were caught with guns were handed over to the police and it is now their job to charge them with an offense,” Bilal said.

When asked what the point of the entire exercise was when everyone had to be released in the end, Bilal said some useful information has been gained out of the interrogation of the suspects apprehended last night. “A report regarding it will be presented to the relevant people in the interior ministry and police department would be also be shared,” he said.

Meanwhile, police officials denied that Rangers had handed over suspects to them. A senior official said the police was not involved in the crackdown from the start so why would they take the headache of charging the suspects, especially given that they didn’t interrogate them last night.