THATTA, Jan 21: Police in the coastal town of Mirpur Sakro have nominated two blind men in three separate FIRs on charges of being involved in loot and arson and damaging public and private property during riots which broke out following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
The FIRs 103/07, 104/07 and 04/08 registered at Mirpur Sakro police station by complainants ASI Mohammad Hanif Shoro and Haji Asghar Ali Arain, a kiryana merchant, accuses Haji Khan Soomro and Noor Gabol (both blind for years) of committing loot, plunder and destroying pubic and private property in the coastal town.
Pakistan People’s Party leader Sassui Palijo urged the RPO of Hyderabad and Thatta police to delete wrong names in the FIRs registered in haste.
Some 252 FIRs had been registered against over 100,000 people at 16 police stations for their alleged involvement in subversive activities in the district following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
ENCROACHMENT: The Forest Department had closed down four water escapes and 45 watercourses to compel the influential encroachers who had occupied over 55,000 acres of state land to vacate the forest areas in the district, sources in the department said on Monday.
The sources said that major part of the encroached land was in the possession of influential politicians and their henchmen.
The department had closed the escapes (water streams) namely Baghar, Kalri, Udero and link canal, which had been excavated exclusively with financial assistance of Asian Development Bank and World Bank for irrigating the department’s projects in Bao Poorandas, Garhko, Bijora, Shah Loko, Hilayo, Ali Bahar and some other forests, sources said.
But they were now being misused by the encroachers who were irrigating their lands and refusing to vacate the forest area.
The desperate encroachers had on many occasions beaten up some irrigation and forest officials when they were guarding the outlet points on illegal watercourses and escapes, sources said. A forest official said that the high-ups were reluctant to take any punitive action against the encroachers after former forest minister Syed Aijaz Shah Shirazi appointed his favourite Mehmood Ahmed Khan as secretary of forests.
The illegal excavation of over 50 watercourses from the escapes had resulted in heavy financial losses to the national exchequer, sources said.
District Forest Officer Afforestation Anwar Baloch disclosed that the National Accountability Bureau, after a thorough inquiry, had directed Thatta district forest office to register FIRs against the encroachers by Jan 26.
The secretary, meanwhile, ordered departmental inquiry and action against all the forest officials involved in rendering irreparable financial losses to the national exchequer.
ACCIDENT: Gul Hassan, 40, and Bashir Babar, 30, of Ongar died on the spot when a truck hit their motorcycle near Jherruk on Monday evening.
Police said the truck driver escaped from the scene. The truck overturned and fell into a ditch after hitting the motorcyclists.
SUICIDE: Sakina, a mother of six, committed suicide by consuming pesticide in Ward-VI of the city on Monday. Neighbours blamed her husband who was compulsive gambler for her suicide.
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