Repeat performance: Rangers raid Sunni Tehreek office again

Paramilitary force seizes records about Zakat and Fitra collection, party-related programmes

KARACHI: The Rangers conducted a raid at the Pakistan Sunni Tehreek's (PST) headquarters in Karachi for the second time this week, early on Sunday morning.

Although the paramilitary force left without making any arrests, they confiscated records from the party office. Rangers personnel in around eight vehicles surrounded the party headquarters near Civil Hospital, Karachi, and cordoned off the nearby streets, preventing anyone from entering or leaving while the raid was taking place. They reportedly confiscated records pertaining to party-related programmes and Zakat and Fitra collection.

The raid comes three days after a similar raid on the facility by the Rangers on Thursday, when the paramilitary force detained nearly a dozen PST workers. While one worker was released, the others remain in custody.

The Rangers did not issue a statement following the raid, as has become customary for them. However, sources within the paramilitary unit said that the raid had been conducted on the basis of information obtained while interrogating the detained workers.

PST spokesperson Fahim Shaikh confirmed that the Rangers had confiscated their records, adding that no one had been arrested in the latest raid. "We are trying to ascertain why these raids are being conducted and why our records are being seized."

Published in The Express Tribune, June 22^nd, 2015.