SUKKUR: Thirty members of the Pitafi community living in two villages near Mirpur Mathelo town of Ghotki district were booked and raids were conducted to apprehend them after a police team was attacked by a group of people to prevent it from arresting some proclaimed offenders on Sunday.

The team belonging to the Yaroo Loond police station had carried out a raid on a gambling den in Bari Adda village to arrest proclaimed offenders, Yaroo Loond SHO Pervez Shah claimed in his FIR. He further claimed that gamblers attacked the police party when it tried to arrest the offenders. He nominated Zahid, Hassan and 28 others as the attackers. None of them could be arrested till late in the evening.Contesting the police claim and leading a protest by residents of the two villages, a woman resident of Azmat Pitafi village, Ajeban Pitafi, told local reporters that her son, Abdul Sattar, was picked up by the Yaroo Loond police two days back and since then his whereabouts were not known. She alleged that the police were demanding Rs500,000 for his release and threatening to kill him in a fake encounter if the money was not paid to them.

On his part, SHO Shah denied having kept Sattar in custody. He said that the Pitafi community was actually enraged over institution of the case against its unruly members.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2017