KARACHI: Deputy speaker of the Sindh Assembly Syeda Shehla Raza on Tuesday claimed to have received a “threatening letter” from a Rawalpindi address, demanding her to pay Rs500 million or “face fate like Benazir Bhutto’s”.

Ms Raza said she brought the matter into the knowledge of the chief minister and heads of institutions concerned after which counter-terrorism department head Additional IG Sanaullah Abbasi assured her of tracing the culprits.

Initial investigation into the matter indicated that it was the outcome of some longstanding dispute between two groups over a piece of agricultural land in Naushahro Feroze, said sources privy to police.

Ms Raza also provided some cellphone number mentioned on the letter, said a source. “When the police traced the number and connected other dots, it emerged that there is a dispute between two groups over 25-acre land in Naushehro Feroze. One group deliberately mentioned the cellphone number of a person from their rival group to trap him in a fake case. However, the investigation is still under way, as Ms. Raza apart from the threatening letter had also received phone calls of the same nature.”

The police investigators, he said, were looking into the details to ascertain if threats in different forms were being forwarded by the same individual or group.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2016