KARACHI, July 16: Police picked up an editor, an assistant editor of a weekly and six newspapers hawkers for spreading ‘hate literature’ here on Saturday night. Well-placed sources said the police launched a drive to remove hate literature from the market by the end of this year in compliance with the directives of the president.

They said the Mithadar police raided the office of weekly ‘Zarb-i-Islam’, located off I.I. Chundrigar Road and picked up its editor Nasir Ali Jahangir and assistant editor Mohammad Saleem. Police also seized all of the copies of the weekly from there and sealed the office.

A police official said on condition of anonymity late in the night: “We have picked up the editor and his assistant and kept them in the police station. No case has been registered against them and we are waiting for further orders from high-ups.”

In of Saddar, the Preedy police raided different newspaper stalls and picked up hawkers Mohammad Imran, Abdul Latif, Abdur Rehman, Mazhar Abbas, Nadeem, and Mohammad Irfan, for selling hate the copies of another Urdu weekly ‘Zarb-i-Momin’.