KARACHI: The Anti-Encroachment Cell (AEC) of the Sindh government and police conducted a raid on the residence of Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh in the small hours of Sunday morning and detained his one relative following registration of two cases pertaining to ‘terrorism’ and ‘land grab’ in Gulshan-i-Maymar.

A Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf spokesperson, Saddam Kumbhar, told Dawn that both the police and AEC officials raided the residence of Mr Sheikh located in the Defence Officers Housing Society at around 12.30am.

The opposition leader was not present. The raiding party was told that the PTI leader had already obtained bail before arrest from court and shown the papers, upon which the raiding party left the premises.

However, at around 2.30am, they again came and took away his relative, identified as Ali, and his whereabouts were not known, he added.

He said that the Gulshan-i-Maymar police had on Saturday registered two cases against the opposition leader pertaining to terrorism and land grabbing.

Mr Sheikh already got bail before arrest in the terror case.

An officer said that the AEC had taken the action to get official land vacated from land grabbers on city outskirts. However, the elements present there told the AEC that the land belonged to Mr Sheikh of the PTI.

Later, the opposition leader said in a statement that a ‘fake’ case had been registered against him in which his brother, Aleem Adil Sheikh, was nominated.

He said that “such high-handed tactics of the PPP government” would not deter them and they would continue their fight against ‘the power mafia’ along with Imran Khan.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2022