SUKKUR: The body of a missing Sindh United Party (SUP) activist, Haseeb Junejo, 35, was found dumped near Zero Point, along the Indus River, within the jurisdiction of the Qadirpur police station on Monday.

Mr Junejo, who was serving as the party’s Sukkur division information secretary, had reportedly gone missing after leaving his home in the New Pind area on Sunday night.

The area police said the man was subjected to intense torture and killed with some sharp weapon. The body was taken to the taluka hospital for a post-mortem examination, they added.

The SUP central leadership strongly condemned the “gruesome murder” of Haseeb Junejo, saying that his mysterious disappearance and brutal murder raised many questions.

In a statement, SUP chairman Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah and president Syed Zain Shah said “such incidents put a question mark on the performance of law enforcement agencies”. They said the murder of an active and peace-loving SUP worker was an “act of open terrorism”, adding that those who were shedding blood of innocent citizens after kidnapping them did not deserve to be pardoned.

They said it was not a first incident of its kind, and demanded a judicial probe into the torture and murder of Mr Junejo.

The statement, issued in Karachi on Monday, claimed that Haseeb Junejo was kidnapped and subjected to third-degree torture; parts of his body were chopped off with some sharp weapon.

Those involved in the gruesome murder must be taken to task, the statement said.

It said SUP believed in non-violence and, as such, its leaders and workers would not do away with the party’s policy of restraint and patience even over such a highly condemnable act.

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2023