Yet another FIR filed against Mirza, supporters

Two reporters have also been nominated in the new cases.

HYDERABAD: The vicious circle of cases against Zulfiqar Mirza and his supporters seems likely to go on with the addition of a new FIR, containing charges of violence and assault.

This FIR was registered as Mirza managed to get an interim bail, along with his around six dozen associates, in seven police cases from the Badin district and sessions court.

In the new FIR, around 40 people, including Mirza and two reporters, Shafqat Hussain Pinyaro and Niaz Ahmed Memon, have been nominated in the case registered at the Pangrio police station. Complainant Dad Laghari, said to be a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) activist, accused the suspects of attacking a group of PPP men during which six people were injured.

The incident happened when Mirza's supporters held a rally, led by Haji Panah Mallah (also nominated in the FIR), in Pangrio town on Thursday. While the complainant accused the members of the rally of attacking, Mirza's supporters claim that they were provoked by the PPP men.

Protesting against the case, the local journalists of Pangrio held a demonstration and asked the district police to remove the names of their colleagues from the FIR.

So far, at least four reporters, including Murtaza Memon and Haji Lashari, and a reporter's brother, Asghar Ghuman, have been booked in FIRs alongside Mirza since the on-going wave of standoff began in early May. "We have spoken to the local PPP leader and SSP Khalid Mustafa Korai and asked them to stop harassing the media," said Gul Mohammed Werho, the president of Pangrio Press Club, talking to The Express Tribune.

Meanwhile, the district court in Badin seethed with an unusually higher number of litigants as thousands of Mirza's supporters, including over a hundred booked in the seven FIRs, appeared for the bail plea. The court granted them interim bail till May 23.

Mirza's tirades

"[Asif Ali] Zardari's henchmen say I am an ISI agent," he said. "I feel proud of this association as people don't think that I am a Raw agent like Zardari and [Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief] Altaf Hussain."

He alleged that the orders for the registration of nearly the dozen FIRs registered against him and his supporters were given by Zardari and his sister. "Hundreds of people have recently become victims of terrorism but Zardari, instead of going after the terrorists, is trying to either send me to jail or get me killed through his death squad," he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2015.