LARKANA, Oct 10: The Larkana police on Wednesday arrested a man for allegedly planting an explosive device near the house of Sindh Assembly Speaker Nisar Ahmed Khuhro a day earlier.

SSP Javed Sonharo Jiskani told a press conference here on Wednesday that Asadullah Cholyani — who holds a master’s degree in sociology — was the Warah taluka chief of the Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM) and resident of Warah Town.

The police officer claimed that during initial interrogation, Cholyani confessed to his crime, adding that he had been operating with different identities, including Sha’aban Shaikh, Naveed Shaikh, Sanaullah Cholyani and Asadullah Chandio.

“We are going to further investigate him as he appears to be the same man wanted by the police in several criminal cases and a key character in the earlier blasts near the National Bank building in Warah and Shahdadkot,” the SSP said.

The police obtained Cholyani’s two days remand from an anti-terrorism court on Wednesday, he added.

Two cases (FIRs 83/2012 and 84/2012) had been registered against the suspect and his associates identified by him during the interrogation, the police officer said.

The SSP said that the suspects had been booked under Sections 3 / 4 and 6 / 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act and 13-D of the Arms Ordinance for possessing and planting explosive material and creating harassment and panic.

In reply to a question, the police officer said that Cholyani was also wanted for allegedly carrying out a blast a few days back near Rellan village.

A pylon carrying a high-voltage transmission line was damaged in the blast that occurred within the remit of the taluka police station, he said.

Regarding the recovery of another explosive device, also found and defused on Tuesday, the SSP said: “We are getting close to another suspect who had hurled the device inside the house of Sindh Law Minister Ayaz Soomro in Shaikh Zayed Colony.

“The suspect was identified with the help of the CCTV camera installed near the minister’s residence,” he said, adding that it was a Russian-made device.

He said that the police high-ups had taken notice of the negligence on the part of the policemen deployed at the house. The ASI in charge of the security team could face dismissal, he said.

Suspect denies charges Meanwhile, Asadullah Cholyani while speaking to the media in the office of the SSP denied that he had planted any explosive device near the speaker’s residence.

“I did my master’s in sociology from the Sindh University in 1988.

I am Warah taluka president of the JSMM. The police picked me up while I was passing by the scene of the blast,” he said.

He also commented on the series of attacks against PPP leaders on Tuesday. “It is the obvious reaction of people who oppose the new local government law which is aimed at dividing Sindh,” he said, adding that he was just a jobless political worker and had nothing to do with planting of explosives.

HYDERABAD: Police raided the D-block hostel of the University of Sindh late on Tuesday night and arrested two regular students on suspicion of their involvement in the planting of explosive devices at PPP leaders’ houses. They conducted a search of the hostel and arrested Rashid Malik and Abdul Qadir.

Reacting to the police action, a group of students ransacked and torched the office of the hostel provost (boys), Dr Ghulam Ali, on Wednesday morning.

The university administration claimed that the attackers belonged to a political party. It lodged an FIR against unknown students at the Jamshoro police station.

Sources said that personnel of the police and other law enforcement agencies conducted the raid after a tip-off that some activists of the Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz were hiding in the hostel.

The SU administration has set up a committee to hold an enquiry into the affair and maintained that the university administration should have been taken into confidence before conducting the raid.

A spokesman for the university said that SU Registrar Mohammad Nawaz Narejo talked to DIG Sanaullah Abbasi about the arrest of the students.

He said that the DIG had assured him that the students would be released as they were not found involved in criminal activities.

NAWABSHAH: An unspecified number of activists belonging to various nationalist parties were rounded up in a crackdown launched in the district after recovery of a bomb near the residence of PPP lawmaker Syed Faseeh Shah on Tuesday.

Those picked up included Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz activists Riaz, Pappu Umrani, Zulfiqar Umrani, Ayaz, Dodo and Dost Ali.