KARACHI: Pakistan Rangers carrying out random vehicle checks on the National Highway on Thursday afternoon seized weapons found in the vehicle of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) chairman and subsequently detained him.
The detention of JSQM chief Bashir Qureshi caused tension in the strongholds of the nationalist party, which threatened to call a “province-wide shutter-down strike on Friday if its leaders were not released”.
Mr Qureshi was returning from the interior of Sindh when the Rangers stopped and searched his vehicle close to his Gulshan-i-Hadeed residence.
While the Rangers and JSQM leaders had different views on the detention, witnesses said the two sides engaged in an argument before the paramilitary soldiers detained the nationalist leader along with his gunman and another man.
The Rangers spokesman said: “The Rangers personnel during snap checking near Gulshan-i-Hadeed stopped the vehicle of Bashir Qureshi and carried out a search during which they found four sub-machine guns, two pistols and several bullets.
“Consequently, the Rangers detained Bashir Qureshi for initial interrogation.”
When asked about detention of any other person along the JSQM chief, the Rangers official said his gunman ‘might also have been detained’.
The official, however, did not disclose the location where the JSQM leader was being ‘investigated’ insisting that it was not a formal arrest but detention to seek answers about the illegal arms.
“We would hand him over to local police with our initial report for further legal process. The police would take care of the registration of an FIR or any other formality,” the Rangers spokesman added.
The action sparked anger in JSQM ranks, as senior leaders of the party in Karachi and other cities of Sindh led street protests.
Tension gripped parts of Bin Qasim Town and Malir Town as regular life in Gulshan-i-Hadeed and Steel Town came to halt after closure of businesses.
Area people and JSQM leaders said the Rangers personnel also detained two sons of a police officer, who resided in the same area, when they intervened during the argument between the two sides.
“Mr Qureshi’s gunman and his guest, Sarwar Shah, were also taken away,” they said.
After their leader’s detention, some charged youths took to the streets in a few districts of the metropolis. They blocked roads with burning tyres in Scheme 33 and Bin Qasim Town.
Similar scenes were witnessed on the National Highway as traffic coming from the interior of Sindh and leaving the city remained suspended for a brief period.
The JSQM leaders rejected the Rangers claim and said the party chief was ‘arrested only for his recent political activism’. But none of them denied that arms were being carried by Mr Qureshi and those detained along with him. They threatened to call a strike if the JSQM chief was not released or if a case was registered against him.
“If he is not released immediately, a shutter-down strike will be called across Sindh on Friday,” said Karachi JSQM president Illahi Bukhsh Bikik. “He was returning home after visiting flood-affected areas in Sindh when apprehended by the Rangers. Mr Qureshi had security guards with him with licensed weapons.”
The authorities did not sound too bothered about the threats of a strike and province-wide protests, vowing to pursue ‘the legal course of action against the nationalist leader in line with the defined laws.’
“Anyone found by the law-enforcement agencies violating the law of the land, including possession of unlicensed arms, would be taken to task,” Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Hussain Wassan told Dawn.
“The government has decided to enforce the writ of the law in the province and this time the government means business. I am here to ensure transparency and evenhanded surgical operation in the province against target-killers, land-grabbers, drug-peddlers and those involved in any kind of crime.”
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.