SUKKUR: A raid was conducted late on Sunday evening on the anti-encroachment cell office, located next to the Sukkur deputy commissioner’s office, to recover four vendors allegedly held hostage, Sukkur SSP told reporters on Monday.

He said that he ordered the C-Section police of old Sukkur to conduct the raid after receiving complaints that some uniformed employees of the anti-encroachment cell posing themselves as policemen were picking up people to extort money from them.

SSP Amjad Shaikh said that a team of the C-Section police carried out the raid and found four persons — Abdul Sami Langha, Abdul Jabbar Soomro, Anees and Jawed — lodged in two rooms of the cell. The victims said they had been held in unlawful confinement by the anti-encroachment staff.

The SSP quoted the victims as revealing that the uniformed personnel of the cell picked them up from a roadside tea shop in the Baberloi area before escorting them to the cell. “They were demanding Rs40,000 from each of us for our release,” the victims said, adding that their relatives were also approached by these personnel for payment of illegal gratification.

SSP Shaikh said that four employees of the anti-encroachment cell — Liaquat Ali, Ghulam Fareed, Imran and Nisar Ahmed — were detained in the lock-up of the C-Section police after they were picked up during the raid. “The official in charge of the anti-encroachment cell, Zulfiqar Abbasi, and another suspect, Dilbar Mangi, managed to slip away,” the police officer said.

Officials at the C-Section police confirmed that an FIR against the detained suspects was registered and they would be formally arrested after legal formalities.

SSP Shaikh, commenting on the episode, said that the errant anti-encroachment personnel took advantage of their uniform, which resembled that of the regular police. He said he had earlier received many complaints from traders, vendors and other citizens about harassment being caused to them by some men in uniform. He said he formed an inquiry committee which came to know that the uniformed personnel actually belonged to the anti-encroachment cell. He said the complainants claimed that the uniformed men would stop harassing them after receiving [varying amounts] in bribe.

The SSP said he ordered the raid and action against the errant personnel in view of the committee’s findings.

Meanwhile, the freed vendors shared their ordeal with the police stating that the anti-encroachment staff in the Baberloi area posed themselves as policemen while “arresting” them but escorted them to the cell instead of a police station.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2017