DADU: Two officers, a cashier and a driver of the Motorway Police were injured and their two official cars were badly damaged by a mob near Sehwan town on Friday.

The trouble started when the officers, Sub-inspector Saddam Hussain Bhutto and Junior Patrolling Officer Rahim Gul, along with cashier Mansoor Ahmed and driver Mohammed Hussain, intercepted some dumper trucks and imposed fines on their crews for overloading the vehicles. The crews did not pay the fine and urged the officers to wait as they had called owners of the vehicles to come here and make the payment.

After some time, a mob of around 60 people many of them wielding clubs attacked the cars and started beating up the Motorway Police officers and personnel.

The officers, cashier and driver sustained multiple injuries in the attack. Other officers and personnel rushed to the scene and took them to the Syed Abdullah Shah Institute of Medical and Health Sciences in Sehwan. The injured were admitted for treatment. Their patrolling cars, bearing registration numbers IDP-3746 and BFK 995, were also badly damaged in the attack.

Dumper trucks’ owners, crews accused of pre-planned attack

The unruly attackers, waving clubs and carrying stones in their hands, kept raising slogans against the Motorway Police accusing them of high-handedness against truckers.

Crews of several dumper trucks parked their vehicles in the middle of the Sehwan-Jamshoro section of the Motorway, some three kilometres from Sehwan, to block the thoroughfare. They pelted passing vehicles with stones before completely blocking the road. The blockage continued for two hours after which Motorway Police SP Ishtiaq Arain and Sehwan SHO Mazhar Naich arrived and held negotiations with truckers. On certain assurances, the mob was persuaded to clear the road.

Sub-inspector Sadam Hussain Bhutto lodged an FIR (No. 78/19) against seven attackers -- Manthar Birhamani, Fida Hussain Birhamani, Salim Birhamani, Rozi, Ali Hassan, Sardar Mallah and Hyder Rind -- as well as their 60 unknown associates.

SP Arain told Dawn that all that happened today was a preplanned attack on the Motorway staff by owners and crews of dumper trucks. He condemned the attack and vowed to take action against all those involved as per the law.

No arrests were made till late in the evening.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2019