Preventive detention: Rangers hold fishermen society’s officer for target killing, extortion

KARACHI: The Rangers went to an anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Thursday to seek a three-month preventive detention of a top official of the Fishermen Cooperative Society (FCS) on terrorism charges.   

The vice-chairperson of the cooperative society, Sultan Qamar Siddiqi, was picked up by the paramilitary force in a raid at his house in Gulsitan-e-Jauhar early on Thursday. His detention came as a result of the expanding domain of the ongoing targeted operation in the city from notorious gangs to political workers and bureaucratic circles.

Siddiqi was presented by the paramilitary force and its legal team inside the chamber of the court's incharge judge, Akhlaq Hussain Larik. The Rangers' claimed they had credible information against the suspects for his involvement in offences such as target killing, kidnapping and extortion.

"It is in public interest that an inquiry be conducted against the above said person and during the inquiry he be kept under preventive detention for the period of three months, as per the law," the Rangers told the judge.

The suspect was sent into 90-day custody for questioning under Section 11EEEE of the Anti-Terrorism Act. The particular section allows the law enforcement agencies to issue an order of a lengthy preventive detention for any person in the country.

According to the papers submitted in court, Siddiqi will be kept in Mitha Ram Hostel, the city's historic landmark recently declared a sub-jail by the provincial government.

A few hours after Siddiqi was presented in court, the Rangers also arrested two more officers who worked for the FCS. Muhammad Khan Chachar and Rana Shahid, who are both directors at the society, have been arrested based on revelations made by Siddiqi.

The paramilitary force did not share any details of the arrest but an officer said, on the condition of anonymity, that Chachar was detained on his way home from work. "Rana Shahid did not come to work today [Thursday]," said an official of the FCS, adding that Chachar was not taken into custody from his office located in Fish Harbour. He also denied that the Rangers conducted a raid at their office on Thursday.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2015.