MITHI: A police team of Tharparkar picked up a student of intermediate class, Raja Kanwar, in a late night raid on a house in Hyderabad on Saturday for allegedly posting sacrilegious material on the social media which was deemed hurtful to a majority of the Muslim community.

In a similar raid in the Parmar locality in Mithi on Friday, police had whisked away Danish Meghwar, a student of intermediate and president of Tharparkar chapter of the Sindhi Shagird Tehreek, and his father, Kirshan Meghwar.

Police later released the father but moved the student to an undisclosed location for interrogation on allegation of posting sacrilegious material on the social media during Eid days.

“Some Hindu boys from Mithi, including Danish and Raja Kanwar, had hurt religious sentiments of Muslims by making a mockery of sacrifice of animals during Eidul Azha,” said a police officer.

The controversial posts created an uproar among the Muslim community of Thar and Umerkot districts and also led to a complete shutdown in Mithi town on Tuesday on a call given by several religious parties.

Advocate Shahnawaz Hingorjo, local president of the Qaumi Awami Tehreek (QAT), said that police had picked up the young boys without any evidence and demanded their immediate release. The students’ lives were in great danger, he said.

QAT chief Ayaz Latif Palijo alleged in a press statement that workers of his party were being harassed and victimised at the behest of local PPP leadership. Communal harmony and pluralism in the peaceful Thar region was being vitiated by some miscreants, he added.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2017