May 14, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 8, 1429

MIRPURKHAS, May 13: Police on Tuesday booked seven people, including a former SHO and a landlord, on the orders of the district and sessions judge of Umerkot, on charges of being involved in kidnapping a Bheel family and torturing and robbing a rights activist.

Judge Khan Ubedullah Khan passed the order on the application filed by Ismail Bheel, an activist of HRCP’s core group, on April 30, in which he said that the former SHO of Dhoronaro police station, Musaddiq Arain, his close relative and landlord Amir Arain and five unidentified men kidnapped him and Bheel women Radha, Dhia, and their children Parkash and Aasan while they were standing in front of the court after attending a hearing on April 21.

He said that the SHO and his accomplices took them to THE police station where they confined him in a police quarter and locked the women and children in another quarter.

He said that the women and children were harassed and he was subjected to severe torture. The SHO and Amir Arain also robbed him of Rs6,500 and a mobile phone, he said. They were later released on the intervention of the then DPO of Umerkot Ghulam Sarwar Jamali, who immediately suspended Musaddiq Arain, he said.

He said that the Bheel family’s only crime was that it had sought court’s help in getting their share in the crops, which their landlord Amir had denied them.

The court had ordered the SHO to lodge an FIR on May 9 and then police filed the case under sections 365, 367 and 392 PPC against the former SHO Musaddiq Arain, landlord Amir Arain and five unidentified men. However, no arrest has been made yet.