HYDERABAD, Nov 6: Police claimed to have arrested Sindh Nationalist Forum chief Allah Dino alias Asif Baladi — one of the missing persons of Sindh for whom many protests were staged — in connection with an Explosive Substance Act case while, allegedly, he was returning from Quetta to Karachi at Jinnah International Airport on Tuesday.

According to supervising police officer (SPO) Latifabad Ayub Durrani, he was brought to Hyderabad by a team of Latifabad police from airport as soon as he came out of the domestic departure of the airport.

He said that Baladi was absconding accused in crime no 25/07 of Qasimabad police station lodged under Sections of Explosive Substance Act. He said that plane landed at 11.30am and he came out of airport at around 12 noon. His remand would be obtained in the said case on Wednesday (today).

However, according to Baladi’s family he was arrested on June 26, 2006, in Karachi.

His son Jibran Baladi and daughter Ropa Baladi while speaking at a news conference here at Hyderabad press club on July 4 had claimed that their father had gone to meet a friend in Defence Society, Karachi, but he never returned.

They said that they had contacted all friends of their father but they knew nothing about his whereabouts. They said that all of a sudden, a telephonic message was received from their father to hand over his passport and NIC to some person, who would be soon visiting house. They said that a few days back a couple of persons arrived at their house and asked for passport and NIC which was refused. They had feared he was kidnapped by state agencies and was being tortured.

Earlier, on May 21, Baladi, while addressing a news conference had announced that the Forum would organise a three-day “International Paigham-e-Sindh Conference” in March 2007, at shrine of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai with an objective to disseminate information about the unparalleled culture of thousands of years of Sindh and its philosophy to the world.

The case in which he was shown as absconder pertained to recovery of explosive materials in which five alleged terrorists, including Zulfikar Bhurgari, Maula Bux Nohani, Hameed Samejo, Musa Samejo and Ali Nawaz Leghari were arrested.

Their arrests were disclosed by the then Regional Police Officer (RPO) S.S.Babar Khattak. He had claimed that the gang was involved in a series of bomb explosions in Karachi and Hyderabad since 1999.

According to the RPO, passports, travel documents, foreign drafts, shopping items, bank accounts’ details, three kilogrammes of explosives, five detonators, maps and other items were seized from them.

Police recovered 12 kilograms of explosive material from Ali Shah graveyard near Quaid-e-Awam University of Engineering, Science & Technology at Sakrand road in Nawabshah on Saturday.