SUKKUR: The DIG of the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) Sukkur suspended nine policemen who reportedly created panic by firing in the air in Khairpur mobile market and whisking away four shopkeepers on Thursday.

According to detail, the CTD policemen in plainclothes stormed the mobile market and detained Abu Bakar Metilo, Taufeeq Memon, Abdul Sami Qureshi and Kangal, and took away several items, including computers and mobiles from their shops.

Enraged shopkeepers said the police officials also created panic in the market by firing in the air and shifted the four shopkeepers to an unknown place.

Anjuman-i-Tajiran Khairpur president Lala Abdul Ghafar Sheikh and a large number of shopkeepers staged a demonstration in protest against the police action.

Lala Ghaffar phoned CTD DIG Asif Aijaz Sheikh and informed him about the incident. The officer got the arrested shopkeepers released and suspended nine policemen, including Turab Ali Awan, Salman, Ashfaq Niazi, Abdul Qadir Phul, Sajid Baladi, Abdul Qayyum Marri, Niaz Muhammad Rind, Ghulam Hussain Buledi and Muhammad Ali Gadani.

The DIG also ordered a departmental inquiry into the incident against the suspend police officials.

Two policemen looted

Unknown criminals looted two police officials in Shikarpur at a time when IGP Raja Rafat Mukhtiar was presiding over a meeting on the law and order in the city.

The armed persons intercepted sub-inspectors Mehmood Ahmed Bhutto and Ghulam Rasool, and robbed them of a motorcycle and cash amount at gunpoint.

The victims said that when they were on way to the Larkana DIG office, the outlaws intercepted them at a section of Larkana-Shikarpur Road within the jurisdiction of Garhi Yaseen police station.

As soon as the report about the incident reached the SSP Shikapur office, police condoned off the area and mounted a search for the robbers.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2023