Police deployed in Badin as routes to Zulfiqar Mirza's farmhouse blocked

Though SHC granted Mirza ‘protective bail’, sources say former Sindh home minister may be arrested

BADIN: All routes leading to former home minister Zulfiqar Mirza’s farmhouse in Badin were blocked on Tuesday amidst heavy police deployment in the area.

Mirza’s supporters and journalists were also not allowed to go towards the farmhouse.

Though the Sindh High Court (SHC) granted on Monday ‘protective bail’ to Mirza in four criminal cases pertaining to the attack and ransacking of a police station in district Badin, sources say that the former Sindh home minister may be arrested.

Read: Foreseeing arrest: SHC grants Mirza protective bail on ‘ransacking’ charges

A division bench, headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, which granted the bail in the sum of Rs100,000 each, ordered him to surrender before the trial court by May 6.

The estranged Pakistan Peoples Party leader had approached the high court in Karachi, seeking protective bail as he apprehended his arrest following the posting of SSP Rao Anwar in Badin. The petitioner, who is currently at his farmhouse in Badin, had filed the bail applications through his lawyer, Ashraf Samon.

Read: Zulfiqar Mirza storms police station, manhandles officials in Badin

Samon alleged that the Badin police had, on Sunday, tried to arrest and kidnap Mirza, his companions and well-wisher Nadeem Mughal, a Badin businessman. Mirza went to Model Town police station to register an FIR against the culprits but the officials did not do so despite giving an assurance, he claimed, adding that they lodged four ‘false’ FIRs against the petitioner and his other supporters under the provisions of the anti-terrorism act.