KARACHI, Jan 28: Five policemen were placed under suspension for allegedly making passengers of a coach hostage for an hour and misbehaving with them at Fawwara Chowk on Sunday.

The DIG Operations, Tariq Jamil, took notice of report of the incident in a section of the press and suspended sub-inspector Hasnain Raza, head constable Mohammed Ilyas and constables Munawwar Zarif, Mumtaz Husain and Khalid Mahmood, a police spokesman said.

These policemen had stopped a passenger coach on the pretext of requisitioning it in connection with the Sindh Assembly session that began on Monday. The passengers were detained for one hour in the coach at Fawwara Chowk. They were put on another coach after an hour. The policemen came to the place in a mobile van.

Sources said SHO Artillery Maidan Raja Azhar was on duty at the mobile van, but no action had so far been taken against the SHO, who had handed over the van to the head constable and he named Hasnain Raza to be suspended for allegedly saving his own skin.

CHARAS: The Pakistan Coast Guards recovered three kg charas from a passenger bus and arrested the driver and the conductor in a surprise raid at Uthal checkpost in Balochistan. Coast Guards officials, on a tip-off, intercepted a Karachi-bound passenger bus and during search of the bus recovered three kgs of fine quality charas from a rear seat of the bus.