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SUKKUR, June 17: The Sukkur police have arrested four burglars who were allegedly involved in stealing 1,400 blank passports from the passport office here on May 12.
The police could not recover the looted passports.
Those arrested were identified as Akbar Punjabi, resident of Sukkur, Shabbir Bullo, resident of Pano Aqil, Hmair Khan, resident of Lahore, and Munir Pathan, resident of Peshawar.
Police officials said the arrested persons disclosed on Sunday that some senior officials of the passport department in Sukkur, Lahore and Peshawar were allegedly involved in the conspiracy and the theft of the passports was made under a planned scheme.
It was learnt that through sketches of the accused, the police first picked up Akbar Punjabi from Sukkur and on his pointation, Shabbir was arrested from Pano Aqil, who disclosed the names of Hmair and Munir Pathan, who were arrested from Lahore and Peshawar respectively.
Informed sources said some senior officials of the Sukkur Passport Office were kept under strict vigilance and many of them were interrogated several times.
A senior official of the police department, with the condition of anonymity, told Dawn that without the connivance of the passport officials the theft of the blank passports was not possible.
He said the police were looking for the person who played key role in the stealing of the passports and the motive behind the robbery.
RICE MILLERS: The owners of rice mills observed a strike in Kandhkot on Monday following a rocket attack on a rice mill by bandits on Sunday night.
The 18 rice mills of Kandhkot remained closed throughout the day and their owners, through a telegram, demanded of the Sindh government to provide them protection from bandits saying otherwise they would close down the mills.
A dozen armed bandits fired a rocket on the rice mill of Murlidas and also tried to kidnap him. A portion of the rice mill was damaged.
The security guards retaliated and started aerial firing which frightened the bandits and forced them to flee.
The harassed business community and specially the rice mill owners of Kandhkot have demanded of the Sindh government to provide modern arms to them to defend themselves.
According to them the police are helpless to do any thing to protect them.
ROBBERY: Following a highway robbery, the passengers of eight upcountry-bound coaches coming from Karachi blocked the Indus highway near the Mirwahi police post in Karampur police area of Jacobabad district on Monday.
They were protesting against the highway robberies which have become order of the day in Kashmor and Karampur areas.
The blockade ended after DPO, Jacobabad, rushed to the area and assured the protestors that measures would be taken to provide security on the highway and the robbery culprits would be arrested in 48 hours.
Earlier, a gang of armed bandits opened fire on the police accompanying a convoy of passenger buses near the Mirwahi police post.
