Deputy Speaker Sindh Assembly Shehla Raza on Monday said she had alerted security agencies after receiving a letter threatening to bomb the Sindh Assembly and kill her if she doesn't pay a Rs500 million ransom.

The letter, which carries a postal stamp from Satellite Town, Rawalpindi, says if the ransom amount is not paid, the people making the threat will "blow the Sindh Assembly up". It adds that Raza will meet the same end as former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

"I have spoken to Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the IG Sindh, Sindh Assembly speaker and Faryal Talpur [regarding the matter]," she told journalists in Karachi.

Shehla Raza earlier told DawnNews she had contacted Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and Pakistan People's Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari when she received the letter. She added that the Director General (DG) Rangers Major General Bilal Akbar and Sindh Inspector General (IG) AD Khawaja were alerted to the threat.

Raza said that she had received threatening phone calls from London, Tunisia and other places. "I get calls from people making threats from London, Tunisia... I don't have time to check where the calls are coming from. I answer the phone thinking it's a relative from abroad, but when I answer they give me threats... They speak clear Urdu and use SIMs from London."

When questioned about what action the Sindh government is taking against such people, she said, "It is my job to inform them [of threats] and take precautionary measures myself, which I do... Those whose job it is [to make arrests] are doing it, and people have been arrested," she said.

The threatening letter is undersigned by two men and provides four cellphone numbers to contact each.

The men, when contacted on the provided numbers, told DawnNews that the letter had been written by two other men, who they claimed have occupied a 50-acre piece of land in Naushero Feroz that they own.

"They are staging a drama to get their hands on Rs50m," the men, who currently reside in Jhang, said.

The two men claimed they had lodged a complaint with the Rangers regarding the matter in the first week of October.