BADIN: Estranged Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader and former home minister Dr Zulfikar Ali Mirza and his several aides and associates were acquitted in a case pertaining to their involvement in arson attacks and forcible shutdown in Tando Bago in May last year.

Badin additional sessions judge Ramesh Kumar pronounced his order on Thursday acquitting Dr Mirza, Dilber Sindhi, Irshad Khowaja, Sikender Ali Memon, Saleem Chandio and several other accused nominated in the FIR registered against them at the Tando Bago police station.

The order said that the prosecution failed to prove the allegations made in the FIR and produce incriminating evidence.

According to the FIR, the accused attacked and torched shops to force traders and shopkeepers in Tando Bago to pull down the shutters.

As soon as the judge pronounced his verdict, a number of activists and supporters of Mirza group took to the streets of Tando Bago, Badin and other towns of the district in jubilation.

They took out rallies raising slogans in favour of Dr Mirza and against the PPP, the Sindh government and bureaucrats.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2016