THATTA, March 16: Thirty-five workers of different political parties were booked late Saturday night by the Daro police on the charge of obstructing police work.

Those booked included People’s Party Parliamentarians leader Arbab Wazir Ahmed Memon, Awami Tehrik leader Ali Mohammad Soho and Sindh National Front vice president Haji Khan Abbasi.

Most of those booked belong to the Stop Tyranny Committee (STC).

The Daro police also refused to register an FIR against Arbab Ibrahim Memon, son of the Nazim of the Mirpur Bathoro union council Arbab Ramiz Memon, and others for assaulting Ashraf Palijo, the STC leader and correspondent of a Sindhi daily.

Later, chief of the STC and the AT Rasool Bux Palijo apprised the DPO, Thatta, Nadir Khoso, of the situation and protested against the alleged torture of Ashraf by the SHO of the Daro police station.

Meanwhile, the Daro police have registered a case against the son of the taluka Nazim as well as Akbar Memon and three unidentified persons for attacking Ashraf.

Wire thieves: Three Hesco personnel and a policeman busted a gang of wire thieves after an encounter here the other day.

Hesco authorities claimed the gang had been operating in four districts for the last two years.

A lineman of Hesco, Barkat Ali Mastoi, along with two other staff members, after finding 3,200-foot-long wire lying on ground, came to the Mirpur Bathoro police station. They returned along with a police constable and found that 15 persons were loading the wire into a truck.

Mithoo Mirbahar, Baboo Shah, truck owner Arif Punjabi and Usman Brohi and were among those arrested after the encounter.

They also confessed to have stolen pole lines of Khor Wah, Badin district, Tando Mohammad Khan, Hyderabad district, and Malir district in Karachi.

The line superintendent, Hesco, Nasim, lodged an FIR.