KARACHI: While a joint team of police and CIA has been formed to assist the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) in investigating Thursday’s Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine carnage and bring all culprits to book, there have been reports of a crackdown on anti-state and anti-social elements having been intensified across the interior of Sindh.

Leaders of various nationalist groups on Monday claimed that many of their fellow party workers had been picked up by security agencies for interrogation and many others had gone missing amid the crackdown. The number of the rounded-up suspects and those reported to have gone missing is being put at “several hundred”.

DADU: Hyderabad DIG Khadim Hussain Rind on Monday issued a notification which said that a joint team of police and CTD had been constituted to investigate the suicide blast in the Qalandar shrine. An FIR (16/2017) of the incident under Sections 302, 324, 353, 295, 120/B and 440 of the Pakistan Penal Code, Section 3/4 of the Explosives Act and Section 6/7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act had been lodged at the Sehwan police station in Jamshoro district.

The notification said that the joint team would be headed by Jamshoro SSP Tanvir Alam Odho and its other members would be Dadu SSP Shabbir Ahmed Sethar, Sehwan ASP Dr Mohammad Sami Malik, Thatta SSP Mohammed Farooq, Matiari CIA in-charge Inspector Abdul Rahim Khoso and Tando Allahyar CIA in-charge Naik Mohammad Khoso.

The notification further said that the team would make all-out efforts to assist the CTD in tracking down the culprits.

Speaking to reporters, SSP Odho said that investigators had already found a clue to the culprits but nothing could be disclosed to the media or public at this stage as this might affect the investigation.

THATTA: Jeay Sindh Mahaz (JSM) Vice Chairman Syed Nawaz Shah Bhadai, speaking at a news conference in the Thatta Press Club on Monday, claimed that as many as 50 activists belonging to his and several other Sindhi nationalist groups had gone missing since the Thursday blast.

Quoting family members of most of the missing people, he alleged that security agencies’ personnel in plainclothes had “let loose hell upon activists of nationalist groups in Sindh”.

Mr Bhadai said every person picked up should be officially shown as arrested and his whereabouts be known to his family. Enforced disappearance was bound to cause unrest and disharmony among people and hatred against security agencies, he warned, and called for an immediate halt to the undeclared swoop.

The JSM leader said that Sindhi nationalists were shocked and saddened by the attack inside their Sufi saint’s shrine and regarded it as an attack on their motherland. They were followers of G.M. Syed and his philosophy of non-violence, he said, adding that each of them rejected extremism and terrorism and, as such, could not involve himself in such an act.

“We urge the government and security agencies to ensure arrest of all those involved in acts of terrorism as well as facilitators of terrorism,” he said, and demanded release of innocent Sindhi nationalists.

He appealed to the Sindh High Court chief justice to take suo motu notice of the alleged enforced disappearance of nationalist activists, who had gone missing over the last few days.

MITHI: In a crackdown against suspected terrorists and criminals, police and other security agencies personnel rounded up 47 suspects, mostly hailing from the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, in Tharparkar over the last 24 hours.

Reports from different areas of the district suggested that the crackdown was started late on Sunday evening and was continuing till the filing of this report on Monday evening.

Police officials in different areas were quoted as saying that the suspects were picked up for their dubious entry into and stay in Tharparkar.

Police teams carried out raids at various places in Mithi, Islamkot, Chhachhro and several other towns to pick up the suspects, one official said.

Tharparkar SSP Sarfaraz Nawaz Shaikh, speaking to local reporters, said that measures were being taken to keep a strict check on movement of suspects at the entry and exit points of the district. He said the areas where Chinese people were working on coal exploration, as well as the Thar coal project sites, were vulnerable to subversive activities. He said those picked up on suspicion were being interrogated.

In a similar action, police and Rangers personnel carried out raids at different places in Badin district and rounded up around 20 activists of proscribed nationalist groups.

Local reporters said that those picked up included some family members of proscribed Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM) leader Ustad Mohammad Rahimoon, in Kario Ghanwar town.

Mr Rahimoon had gone missing some three months ago and his whereabouts are not known since then.

In addition to members of proscribed groups, an unspecified number of suspects hailing from tribal areas bordering Afghanistan were picked up in Badin district for interrogation, the reporters said.

Meanwhile, Rangers and police teams patrolled various towns of the district on Monday amid a JSMM call for a shutdown against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The strike call, however, remained by and large ineffective.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2017