THATTA: The Sujawal police on late Sunday evening stormed their way into the office of ‘The Shia Imami Ismaili Council’ in Var town by breaking open the main gate and ransacking the CCTV camera network and smashing windows apparently to vent their anger over some unknown and unrevealed happening that may have infuriated them.

A large number of enraged community members living in the neighbourhood strongly reacted to, what they believed, ‘uncalled for and unwarranted’ police action. They came out of their homes and held a noisy demonstration raising slogans against the local police, who failed to come out with any plausible explanation for their action. Leaders of the community approached the Ghorabari DSP and Sujawal SSP to ascertain the reason for the “highly provocative act on the part of the police team, led by Sujawal SHO Sajjad Jamali”.

Vehicular traffic between Var town and Thatta city remained suspended during the course of the protest that continued for about two hours.

Council’s claim

A member of the council’s staff who was present in the office when the raid was conducted, claimed that members of the police team in an aggressive manner broke open the main gate, smashed windows, barged into the office and dismantled the CCTV network without informing him of a reason for the action. The raiding team also advanced towards the adjacent Ismaili community hall (Jamaat Khana) but could not enter into it seemingly fearing a violent reaction from a large number of enraged community members who had already gathered there and were resisting the police action.

In an attempt to escape the protesters’ rage, the Sujawal SHO and two of the accompanying police officers kept warning them against “interfering in the discharge of their official duty”.

After the episode, the SHO and other officers tried to calm down the community members claiming that they had received information that a ‘gutka factory’ was functioning on the premises of the office and the raid was aimed at unearthing the same.

However, the protesters disbelieved their contention arguing that why was the building pelted with stones by members of the police party during the action.

Police on the back foot

When the raiding team withdrew from the council building to return to the police station, the angry protesters followed them and some of them went into the office of the SHO to lodge a complaint.

However, SHO Jamali appeared regretful and started trying to convince them that all this happened owing to the “wrong information”.

“We did not know the raiding site belonged to the Ismaili community; we never intended to hurt sentiments of the community; the wrong information we had received actually made us to conduct the raid,” the SHO was quoted as telling the protesters.

In the meantime, the Ghorabari DSP also arrived to regret over the raid. He maintained that he was absolutely unaware of the police action before it was taken. He said no advance information was sent to his office nor was such a permission sought.

Thatta SSP Imran Khan, when contacted by Dr Nazir Jummani, President of the Ismaili Council for Thatta and Shah Bundar, also denied having ordered any such raid.

Probe promised

A delegation of the Iocal Ismaili community led by Qaim Karwani approached Sujawal SSP Dr Khaliq Pirzada and narrated the whole episode to him. The SSP assured the delegation that a departmental inquiry against the police officers and personnel involved in the matter would be ordered.

According to some protesters living close to the council office and Jamaat Khana, the raiding party comprised DSP Safar Dawach, Sujawal SHO Sajjad Jamali, Jati SHO Parhiyal Panh­war, Chuhar Jamali SHO Qurban Qambrani and teams of their respective subordinate personnel.

Finally Ghorabari DSP Izhar Hussain held negotiations with representatives of the protesting community members and assured them of appropriate action against any officer or personnel found guilty of excesses. On his assurance, the protesters dispersed peacefully.

Published in Dawn, April 23nd, 2024