DADU: Around 500 illegally raised structures were removed from the eastern side of the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine in Sehwan on Monday as part of a comprehensive security plan chalked out in the wake of the Feb 16 suicide bomb attack that had left nearly 90 people dead and scores of others wounded.

Under the plan, all shops, stalls and other structures raised illegally within a one-kilometre radius of the shrine will be removed to enable the security personnel being deployed there to keep a watchful eye on the movement of suspected terrorists and criminals and pre-empt their nefarious designs.

Sehwan Assistant Comm­i­s­sio­ner Mohammed Moosa Rind and ASP Dr Sami Malik are leading the operation in which heavy machinery is being used. The demolition work is being carried out by the staff of the Sehwan town committee.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Rind said that a major operation was launched on a directive of the Sindh government, adding that aro­und 500 structures were removed on the first day of the drive. He said that all four sides of the shrine would be cleared of all sorts of encroachments in the operation.

ASP Dr Malik told reporters that the people occupying these illegal structures were given three days’ advance notice to clear the place on their own.

LARKANA: The Nau­dero police on Monday pick­ed up five Afghan nationals after they failed to produce their Computer­is­ed National Identity Cards or any other document relating to their stay in the country.

SHOs of the Naudero and Keti Mumtaz police stations told reporters that Afghan currency was also seized from the suspects, who could not speak or understand Urdu.

They were identified as Rozuddin, Shafiullah, Abdul Wali, Abdul Aziz and Wali Mohammed. An FIR (3/2017) under the Foreigners Act was registered against them.

SUKKUR: The Sukkur Counter-Terrorism Depart­ment (CTD) arrested what they claimed to be an absconder convicted in absentia for his involvement in the 2005 bomb attack on the Chizal Shah shrine in Balochistan, in which 45 people were killed.

SP Irfan Samoon of the CTD told the media here on Monday that the suspect, Khalil aka Jalil Sadhayo, was an activist of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and was sentenced to death in the case. A TT pistol and five live rounds were seized from him when he was arrested at the new bus terminal in Sukkur on Monday, the SP said. Sadhayo originally hailed from Shikarpur, he added.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2017