Rangers reveal arrest of 11 Pakistan Sunni Tehreek workers

Suspects will be in preventive detention for three months, says ATC

KARACHI: Six days after its first raid on the headquarters of the Pakistan Sunni Tehreek (PST), the Rangers on Tuesday disclosed the arrests of 11 men from the party office, informing an anti-terrorism court (ATC) that they had been taken into preventive detention for three months.

On June 17, a large contingent of Rangers personnel conducted a raid at the party headquarters in Old City area during a PST meeting about collecting donations in Ramazan, apprehending party leaders and workers.

The Rangers conducted another raid at the PST office, confiscating party records on Sunday morning. They then summoned PST chief Sarwar Aijaz Qadri and party leader Shahid Ghauri to the Rangers headquarters on Monday and detained them for eight hours.

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The Rangers disclosed the arrests of eleven men, identified as Jawad Qadri, Rizwan Qadri alias Guddu, Noorul Alam alias Alam Qadri, Alam alias Baba, Zubair Ali, Salman alias Murchi, Akram alias Kala, Farhan alias Papa, Imran Saeedi alias Noori, Arif Mansuri and Shakeel alias Fauji. They were accused of being involved in over 66 murders, targeted killings of Muttahida Qaumi Movement workers, political clashes, extortion, storing arms and weapons, kidnapping for ransom and street crime.

Preventive detention

The Rangers informed an ATC on Tuesday about the preventive detention of the 11 PST workers for three months.

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The suspects were presented before ATC-III by the Rangers officials and their legal team, who told the court that the paramilitary force had credible information against the suspects about their involvement in extortion, targeted killing and kidnapping.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2015.