SUKKUR: Constable Akbar Shah’s mother Fauzia Siddiqui has, meanwhile, come out in support of the villagers’ demand for a suo motu notice of the Basham Brohi village police action.

Speaking to reporters at her house in Mohalla Islam Ganj near the Sukkur Municipal Corporation office on Monday after her son’s burial in the local graveyard, Ms Fauzia said Akbar Shah was appointed electrician in the Sindh Reserve Police (SRP), Sukkur, on Aug 23, 2010 and it was strange that he was sent to the village along with the police force formed for the operation. “My son had refused to join the force on the grounds that he did not have the training to use automatic arms as he was a technician,” she said. However, she alleged, the SP (reader) of the SRP, Ahmed Ali Shar, threatened him with termination of service, forcing Shah to come to his terms.

Ms Fauzia said that her son was suffering from high fever just before he was to leave for Mirpurkhas and she learnt that he was forced to take part in the police action despite illness. She said she also received the news about serious doubts over fairness of the police operation in which personnel from five districts were detailed and over 60 mobile vans, trucks, and an armoured personnel carrier were employed.

She said her husband died long ago and 26-year-old Akbar Shah was the only bread-earner of the family. She said her other son and two daughters were of young age.

She complained that no one from the police department had contacted her to offer a condolence or apprise her of the circumstances leading to her son’s death.

She urged the chief justice of Pakistan to look into the whole affair and restore justice to all the aggrieved.

Ms Fauzia said she believed the villagers were right in claiming that the police action was aimed at helping the influential landlord of the area to get the land vacated.

She demanded an inquiry into what she believed violations of the SRP rules and regulations to ensure that no such tragic incident took place in future.