BADIN: A team of the FIA with the help of Rangers raided the Khoski Sugar Mills owned by the Omni Group here on Sunday morning, ar­­rested seven of its officials and seized weapons and documents relating to the group’s mills.

The raid was conducted a day after Omni Group head Anwar Majeed was reman­ded in FIA custody in a fake bank accounts case.

The raid was carried out at about 9am and search of the premises and grilling of mill’s officials, especially those of its finance department, continued for over five hours.

The Rangers personnel cordoned off the area and sealed all roads leading to the mill. No one was allowed to enter the mill’s premises and even media persons were kept away. Policemen were also not allowed to enter the premises despite the fact that the town’s police station is adjacent to the mill. The Rangers personnel deployed at the main entrance restricted the movement of the workers of the mill and some banks inside the mill.

Sources privy to the FIA said the raiding team recovered four rifles and seven Kalashnikovs and took into custody 27 hard disks containing records of 15 Omni Group-owned sugar mills. “During the search operation proof of massive corruption at a local branch of the Sindh Bank and other graft cases was found from the mill,” the sources said on condition of anonymity.

According to the sources, the team arrested seven officials of Khoski Sugar Mills — manager admin Sodhal Rind, accountant Asif Rind, Abdul Rasheed, Iftikhar, Waseem, Javed and Soni.

Sources in the sugar mill said the officials were detained in their respective rooms for interrogation. The team later handed over the weapons and the officials to the area police. No case was registered of the whole episode till late in the night.

Badin SSP Hasan Sardar and Deputy Commissioner Asif Jan Siddiqui could not be contacted for their comments on the raid.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2018