HYDERABAD: A fact-finding team comprising civil society activists led by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf MNA and parliamentary secretary for the Ministry of Human Rights Lal Chand Malhi on Monday described the recent riots in Ghotki as a conspiracy to undermine communal harmony in the area.

The team shared its findings with media personnel at a press conference at the local press club under the aegis of the Sindh Human Rights Defenders.

The team members, Advocate Ali Palh, Prof Mushtaq Mirani, Mukhtiar Abbasi and others, condemned rioting, ransacking of a temple and harassment of Hindu community members in Ghotki.

Advocate Ali Palh said a judicial inquiry should be conducted into the alleged blasphemy attributed to a professor, who is the owner of a school, considering the general impression that the relevant law had been misused in other instances.

Demanding action over the mob attack on the private school after the professor was accused of having committed blasphemy, he said the attack was condemnable.

He said the violent incidents that followed were a conspiracy to foment communal riots in the area.

Fact-finding team seeks action against rioters, judicial probe into Nimirta’s mysterious death

He said that the incident had created sense of insecurity among the Hindu community of Ghotki.

Mr Palh claimed that the fact-finding team got some evidence in the shape of videos of “some sort of planning behind the Ghotki incident”. He claimed that the son of a former MNA was seen [in the videos] threatening attacks on the houses of Hindu community members.

“The MNA’s son was not booked, probably for the sake of peace in Ghotki,” he said. “But the delegation rejects such a strategy of ensuring artificial peace, based on injustice, in the area,” he added.

He called for action against those who were responsible for lawlessness in Ghotki, and observed that the Ghotki police took a lenient view against those who were booked for rioting.

Mr Palh said the team also met some Larkana police officers associated with the mysterious death case of a BDS final-year student, Nimirta Mirchandani, as well as the bereaved family, local media personnel, the Bibi Aseefa Dental College and hostel managements and Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University (SMBBMU) vice chancellor.

After the meeting, he added, the team found some reasons to believe that it was not a suicide case but a murder. A transparent inquiry by a high court judge would help resolve the mystery, he said.

The student was found dead in her locked room (number 47) of the BADC hostel-3 on Sept 16.

The civil society activist said that the bereaved family was not willing to lodge an FIR for some reasons but a case should be registered on behalf of the state.

Citing the team’s findings, Ali Palh pointed out that Nimirta’s death occurred at about 2pm but police were informed at 4.15pm. The statements of her roommates recorded by police were not available; her body was lying on the cot in her room and dust was seen on the ceiling fan whose wings were not even bent; all this showed that she had not committed suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling fan, he said.

He also noted that when the body was shifted from the hostel to hospital, police were not informed. Closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) were not seen at the hostel’s main entrance which made the entire case a mystery. He quoted police as saying that the “scene of offence” was spoilt by the hostel management with the result that police could not collect evidence.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2019