KARACHI, Jan 13: Jamaat-i-Islami secretary-general Syed Munawar Hassan on Monday demanded of the government to refrain from conducting “unjustified raids” on citizens’ residences.

Speaking at a press conference along with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal Sindh President Maulana Asadullah Bhutto and a leader of the party, Sabiha Shahid, he refuted the authorities’ claim on arresting two Arabs in Gulshan-i-Maymar and contended that they were Pakistanis.

“I visited Gulshan-i-Maymar and asked people about the incident. They stated that the claim of a shootout between law- enforcement agencies and those arrested from the house was false. No such encounter took place and those arrested were not Arabs,” he claimed.

He alleged that the affairs of the country had been handed over to the FBI. “Instead of protecting citizens, personnel of law-enforcement agencies are harassing people to appease the US,” he maintained.

The JI leader referred to a statement by Information Minister Shaikh Rasheed Ahmed and contended that even ministers wanted to know how far President Musharraf could go in support of the US.

He stressed that Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali should restrain the law-enforcement agencies from harassing people and ask the FBI to leave the country.

Sabiha Shahid, whose house had been raided last week, disputed the official claim that Arabs were arrested from her house.

“They were two men and a pregnant wife of one of them. They spoke Urdu fluently and their physical features were not like that of Arabs as they were Pakistanis,” she added.—PPI