GUJRAT, July 28: Under a directive of the chief minister, DPO Raja Munawar Hussain has suspended from service the entire staff of the Civil Lines Police Stations and Lorry Adda and Shaheen pickets for failing to detect the presence of terrorists in a rented house at Mohallah Islamnagar within the precincts of Civil Lines Police Station.

Those suspended from service include SHO (Civil Lines) Zafar Pehalwan, the men in charge of Lorry Adda and Shaheen pickets, Mohammad Saeed and Malik Mubashar, SIs Raja Ghazanfar, Sagheer Hussain and Amir Malik, ASIs Arshad, Safdar Qureshi, Zahid, Talat Siddique, Malik Younas, Manzoor Ahmad, Zafar Iqbal and Mohammad Afzal, 10 Havaldars and 40 constables.

Speaking at a crowded press conference, DPO Raja Munawar informed mediamen that the CM had asked him why the Civil lines police remained unaware of the presence of suspected terrorists in their area despite an earlier directive of the provincial government that SHOs should keep record of all the tenants in areas within their jurisdiction.

The security forces arrested 13 suspected terrorists, including four foreigners, and some members of their families, from a rented house of Mohallah Islamnagar on July 25.

Police sources told this correspondent on the condition of anonymity that pickets like those at Lorry Adda and Shaheen were definitely subordinate pickets of the Civil Lines Police Station, yet both had their own separate areas of jurisdictions.

Mohallah Islamnagar, where the suspected terrorists resided for 40 days, fell within the jurisdiction of Civil Lines police. They said that staff of the two pickets had committed no mistake as they were not required to acquire information about the jurisdiction of Civil Lines police.