August 27, 2002	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Saani 17,1423

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SUKKUR, Aug 26: Twenty-four villagers of a village 25km off Kashmor (Sindh) were arrested by the Punjab police near Guddu on Sunday evening.

According to some residents of Guddu, a heavy contingent of the Punjab police in three mobiles beat the villagers severely when they asked about cause of their arrest.

Those arrested were taken to Punjab and kept at different police stations of the province, including Bhong police station.

Those arrested included the correspondent of Sindhi Daily Such, Subhan Khoso, who rushed to the site of the arrests in connection with his professional duty. He was later released at the Bhong police station of Sadiqabad, Punjab.

When contacted, the DSP and AC, Sadiqabad, denied the large-scale arrests.

However, DSP, Kashmor, Shoukat Shahani, told Dawn: “I have the information about the massive arrests but no one has come to me to report the incident or lodge a complaint against the Punjab police.”

He said that recently in an inter-provincial meeting of senior police officials of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan, it was unanimously decided that the police of one province would not make any arrest in another province without informing their counterparts from the latter.