LARKANA: A big stock of medicines bearing Sindh government’s stamp was recovered in a police raid on a specified place within the graveyard located near the shrine of Qaim Shah Bukhari, falling within the limits of the Market police station of the city, on Wednesday.

City ASP Rizwan Tarique, along with his team, conducted the raid on a lead given by some suspects picked up in connection with an investigation into pilferage of government medicines, sources said.

The raiding team found as many as 26 cartons containing stolen medicines and took the stock in custody. The stock was transported to the Civil Lines police station by a police van.

ASP Rizwan said that the probe was being conducted by a joint investigation team and was not accepting any political pressure.

During the probe, the Chandka Medical College Hospital and district health office were approached with request to provide relevant records and details about those who were looking after the purchase, handling and storage of medicines to that their statements could be recorded.

Doctors, lawyers in Larkana piqued by police interrogation, hold protests

He said some people had been picked up for interrogation but it did not necessarily mean that they were suspects or arrested. He explained that the process was just a part of the investigation.

He also wondered why the Pakistan Medical Association and some lawyers had registered their protest over the process.

He said Advocate Baqa-ur-Rehman was with police and his mobile phone data was being analysed. He said lawyers were protesting over this only to hamper the ongoing investigation.

The Larkana PMA also protested over the investigators’ act of picking up some doctors for interrogation. Protesting doctors led by Larkana PMA general secretary Dr Gulzar Tunio — who also heads the Covid-19 ICU at the CMCH — held a demonstration outside the Covid-19 ward on Tuesday to condemn the police action.

According to sources, Larkana district health officer (DHO) Dr Athar Shah conveyed the matter to the deputy commissioner, on whose intervention the doctors were let off.

Over the past few days, police carried out two consecutive raids within the jurisdiction of the Dari and Civil Lines police stations and recovered stocks of stolen medicines from some private warehouses. Later, the DHO office was also raided to pick up the storekeeper and some other suspects. Police also took certain doctors to police stations for questioning.

Lawyers split over police role

Larkana District Bar Association general secretary Imdad Ali Tunio and three members of managing committee on Tuesday tendered their resignation and copies of the same were sent to the Sindh Bar Council (SBC) secretary.

Mr Tunio assigned no reason for his resignation and the managing committee members — Sheraz Khichi, Akhtiar Lashari and Tarique Korai — said they did so in solidarity with Mr Tunio.

When Mr Tunio was asked to explain, he said lawyers were being subjected to police excesses but the DBA president, Athar Abbas Solangi, came out in support of police instead of the legal fraternity.

He said Advocate Baqa-ur-Rahman Chandio was implicated in medicines pilferage case, and added that for the last six months, police had been registering ‘false’ FIRs against lawyers, including advocates Asif Chandio and Baqa-ur-Rehman Chandio. They failed to recover stolen material from the house of Advocate Sohail Soomro and even the 15 motorcycles robbed from lawyers. Despite placing truth before police, they did not accept reality and continued to commit excesses against lawyers, he said.

DBA president Athar Abbas Solangi said if any lawyer was charged, he should prove his innocence in court.

He, in video clip of Advocate Tunio, talked in favour of the Larkana police for its “effective role regarding the Covid-19 control”. If the complaints were six months old [as Advocate Tunio said], why he had been keeping silence over the long period of time, Advocate Solangi said.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2020