MULTAN, Jan 4: Plainclothesmen reportedly took three people into custody in Kabirwala in Khanewal district on Wednesday and Thursday.

According to eyewitnesses, Naseem Rajput, 40, was at his shop around 10am on Thursday when 10 to 12 plainclothesmen along with DSP Dawood Hasnain came to his shop and asked for his cell phone number. Later, they took him away.

His younger brother Akhtar Rajput and a shopkeeper, Zahoor Ahmed, went to the DSP’s office to know the cause of his arrest. They did not return till the filing of this report.

Naseem, who actually belongs to Khangarh in Muzaffargarh district, used to live in Karachi. He left Karachi 18 years ago and started living in Kabirwala. He set up a cloth shop opposite Imambargah Areaanwala, Kutchery Road.

On Wednesday, some plainclothesmen also took two people, unidentified so far, into custody on Khanewal Road, Kabirwala.

Meanwhile, police had called Tanveer, alias Tanni Khan and Shabbir Fauji on Monday night to the DSP’s office and questioned them. Former members of the outlawed Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, Tanni and Fauji had carried Rs2 million and Rs1 million head money. Courts had released them after no evidence was found against them.

Kabirwala city police SHO Rao Rashid expressed his ignorance about both the incidents and said no one had complained or informed him about the kidnap or arrest of the people.

DSP Dawood Hasnain, however, told this correspondent that the police had summoned them because a team of a secret agency wanted to question them.

He said that the police had allowed them to go before the Fajr prayers. He said the police had not arrested them rather they had sought some information from them. He said that not a single person had been arrested or kidnapped in Kabirwala. He denied that Zahoor Ahmed and Akhtar had approached him. The DSP said that he was at the wedding of the sister of Tanveer, alias Tanni Khan, on Wednesday and denied his presence at the time of the arrest of the three. He also denied that such an incident had taken place.

Tanveer, alias Tanni Khan, told Dawn that he was busy in arrangements for his sister’s wedding when he received calls from DPO Shahid Hanif and DSP Dawood Hasnain just a day before her marriage. They asked him to come to the police station along with Shabbir Fauji because a team of ISI wanted some information from him. He said the police informed him that an ISI team was in Kabirwala. He said the team told the police that it had information that Tanveer, alias Tanni Khan, Shabbir Fauji and an unidentified person were planning a bomb attack on an imambargah to avenge Saddam Hussein’s execution.

He said courts had declared them innocent but the police were keeping an eye on their activities. He said the police had raided Darul Aloom, Kabirwala and questioned caretaker Mufti Irshad.