NAWABSHAH: Three police officers — a DSP, an SHO and an ASI — along with the head mushi of Sakrand were booked on Sunday after death of a suspect at the police station a day earlier.

The Shaheed Benazirabad SSP, Tanveer Hussain Tunio, was also transferred to the Central Police Office (CPO) over the incident.

Deceased Mohammed Nawaz Zardari, belonging to a respectable family, was arrested along with some other suspects last week on the charges of intercepting and looting a truck carrying edible oil. They were wearing uniforms of the excise police, the FIR against them alleged.

The Sakrand police claimed that Mohammad Nawaz Zardari had suffered a fatal heart attack on Saturday night. His brother, Advocate Ameer Nawaz Zardari, speaking to the media, rejected the claim and accused the police of having tortured him to death in custody.

The body was first taken to the Sakrand Taluka Hospital for a postmortem examination but due to unavailability of such a facility there, it was shifted to the Peoples Medical University Hospital in Nawabshah.

Sindh Minister for Prisons Haji

Ali Hasan Zardari as well as a large number of enraged Zardari clansmen, along with local leaders and workers of Pakistan Peoples Party visited the hospital after receiving the news.

On Sunday morning, an FIR (No. 63/25) was lodged at the same police station against DSP Yaar Mohammed Phulpoto, SHO Mithal Khakurani, ASI Mohsin Baloch, head mushi Arif Khoso and others on the complaint of deceased suspect’s brother Asad Nawaz Zardari.

The SHO and head munshi were arrested and locked up at the B-Section police station.

Home Minister Zia Ul Hassan Lanjar rushed to the bereaved family’s ancestral village near Nawabshah to attend the funeral.

Shaheed Benazirabad DIG Pervaiz Ahmed Chandio had initially asked the Sanghar SSP to hold an inquiry into the whole episode but later the same was transferred to Mirpurkhas DIG Zubair Ahmed Dareshak.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2025