Three senior police officials in Badin were sentenced to six months jail each on Saturday for the illegal detention in 2015 of estranged PPP leader Zulfikar Mirza's aide.

Senior Civil Judge Matli Bhopat Rai announced that Inspector Wali Muhammad Chang, then station house officer of Badin Model Police Station, Loung Shar of the Pangrio Police Station and Raja Naveed of the Matli Police Station were handed six months of jail time after they were found guilty of illegally arresting activist Deedar Mallah and keeping him in illegal confinement for 10 days at various locations during the 2015 local body polls in Badin.

Haji Panah Mallah, Mirza's aide, had in May 2015 filed an application in a Badin district and sessions court complaining that his son, Deedar Mallah, had been in unlawful confinement for more than a week at the Matli police station.

The court asked senior civil judge Abdul Sattar Khaskheli to pay a surprise visit to the police station. During his visit, Judge Khaskheli found Deedar Mallah confined in the lock-up.

Since there was no entry of his arrest in the police station’s record, the judge ordered release of the man and submitted his report with District and Sessions Judge Ghulam Rasool Samoon, who ordered the Matli SHO to appear in person before him on Friday (today).

On May 29, 2015, the three SHOs convicted today were booked at the Matli police station on the orders of Judge Samoon for the illegal arrest and confinement of Deedar Mallah.

The convicts were sent to jail in Hyderabad after the verdict was announced.

In a statement to Dawn, Mirza appreciated the court's verdict and claimed that he and his supporters had been victimised by PPP leaders when he had raised his voice against former president and PPP Co-Chairman Asif Zardari in 2015.