October 22, 2001	Monday	Shaba'an 4, 1422

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SUKKUR, Oct 21: The Sindh police arrested many leaders and workers of the Jamaat-i-Islami and the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam in various towns of the province in the past 36 hours.

Police rounded up more than 70 leaders and workers of Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) from Sukkur, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Kandhkot, Ghotki, and other parts of upper Sindh as a preventive measure against the planned Jamaat rally on Tuesday in Jacobabad.

The rally is to be led by JI Ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmed whose entry into the Sindh has already been banned.

Police conducted raids in different parts of upper Sindh throughout Saturday night and arrested Amir of JI Sindh, Asadullah Bhutto, his son Hammadullah Bhutto, Amir JI Sukkur Ghulam Ghous Ghazi, Dr Mumtaz Ali Memon, Hafeez Shaikh and others.

The largest number of the leaders and workers including Nazim Malik Altaf and Naib Nazim Abdul Rasheed Pirzado were arrested from Jacobabad,

According to informed sources, more than 40 persons of JI were picked up from different parts of Jacobabad district during the night raids.

A press release issued by the JI in Jacobabad claimed that over 1,000 workers and leaders were arrested by the police in Sukkur division.

Raids were also conducted in Shikarpur where Amir JI Shikarpur Mohammad Ali Hakro, Qari Nisar Ahmed, Hafiz Mohammad Bukhsh Brohi, Riaz Ahmed Bhatti, Hazaro Channo and others were picked up.

During the raid in Khairpur, Moulana Abdul Ghafoor, Moulvi Rahim Bux, Raziuddin and others were arrested.

The JI has announced to take out a rally on Tuesday to protest against the use of Jacobabad airport by the US air force.

Meanwhile the religious party held a meeting in Sukkur on Sunday which was attended by a large number of party workers.

They pledged to take out rallies in different cities of the province against the arrests.

Our Larkana correspondent adds: The district police arrested Sindh JUI general-secretary Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro at Madressah Ishatul Quran here on Sunday.

A heavy contingent of the police, led by the ASP and the headquarters DSP, arrested the leader of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam in a raid on the Madressah and whisked him away in a police van.

JUI sources told Dawn that the police officials had held closed-door talks with Dr Soomro before whisking him away in the police van.

The JUI leader’s son told this correspondent that his father was perhaps being detained at the SSP house.

Earlier, in the pre-dawn raids, the Shahdadkot police arrested Dr Sobdar Jarwar, the Jamaat-i-Islami’s district chief, and former JI chief of Larkana Ashique Dhamraho in their villages.

The police also picked up Ayoub Ansari, the acting JI chief of the Larkana district, in the Kambar town.

The party’s Larkana chief, Ghulam Haider Korai, was also arrested in the meantime. The police refused to say anything about the whereabouts of those arrested.

The arrests were said to have been made to foil JI’s attempts to take out an anti-US rally and to lay siege to the Jacobabad airport.

Meanwhile, the JI, at its meeting, announced that despite the arrests, the JI would act according to its scheduled protest plan.

PETITION FILED: A constitutional petition has been filed in the Sindh High Court, Larkana circuit, challenging a ban on the entry of JI chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed into Sindh.

Advocates Abdul Qadir Abro, Shamasuddain Abbasi and Habibullah Ghouri would plead the case, said a JI press release, issued here on Sunday.