BADIN: About 10 people, including an SHO, his two subordinates and three women, were injured and several police vehicles were damaged during a day-long battle between police and members of the Gopang community in Luari Sharif town on Wednesday.

Rangers were called out in the evening to assist the police in maintaining law and order.

Trouble started when a small police team carried out raids in the early hours of Wednesday on some houses to arrest certain members of the Gopang community wanted in drug-related cases.

Taking the raids as breach of their privacy, inmates of the houses along with other community members strongly resisted the police action. They attacked police vans with clubs and stones causing extensive damage to the vehicles. The strong reaction forced the police team to retreat.

However, a stronger force drawn from several police stations of Badin district made another attempt to arrest the suspects, one of them wanted by police in an attack on Khuda Bukhsh Junejo, a disciple associated with the Luari Sharif shrine, a couple of weeks back.

Reports from the town suggested that several houses were damaged when a ruthless operation was carried out in the targeted neighbourhood, housing drug dens and residences or hideouts of drug pushers, according to the police. The operation was led by Badin DSP Qadir Samoon.

Scores of men, women and youths offered a stiff resistance again forcing police to lob teargas shells. In the ensuing scuffles, Khorwah SHO Qurban Mallah and two constables, three women, Zahida Gopang, Zarina Gopang and Sadoori Gopang, and several other people were injured.

An unspecified number of men and women were taken into custody during and after the violent incidents.

DSP Samoon said that the operation against criminals had been launched after widespread complaints by people of Luari Sharif against them.

He said only a few days back, several hundred people took out a rally and held demonstrations in Badin city demanding action against drug pushers and criminals operating from the locality dominated by the Gopangs.

Badin SSP Mustafa Korai, speaking to the media after the operation, said that the staff of the Luari police post had been transferred to facilitate appropriate action against criminals and their patrons. Referring to the recent aggressive actions on the part of some members of the Gopang community, he said no one could be allowed to foment strife between groups associated with the Luari Sharif shrine.

Police claimed to have seized weapons from several suspects. Two separate FIRs were registered against those who obstructed police from discharging their duties and attacked policemen and their vehicles.

A police picket was set up within the troubled area while Rangers were deployed in and around the neighbourhood to ensure peace in the town.

Speaking to the media, some residents of Gopang Mohalla accused the police of breaching their privacy by storming the houses and beating up women, including Ms Zahida, Ms Zarina and Ms Sadoori.

They said police damaged the houses after inmates’ protest over trespassing and other illegal actions on the part of the raiding team.

They demanded an impartial inquiry into the whole episode.

They alleged that 15 men and women, as well as their valuables and cattle heads had been taken away by police.

Meanwhile, DSP Samoon has said that police were continuing a hunt for the 10 suspects and proclaimed offenders wanted in many criminal cases.

Notables of Luari Sharif also held a press conference and expressed their full support for the police in the operation against criminals.

Abdul Rehman Baloch, Fateh Mohammad Junejo, Deen Mohammad Channa, Mushtaque Ahmed Memon and others said citizens of Luari Sharif and other towns of Badin district had long been demanding such an operation.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2015

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