THATTA, Jan 6 Near 0.2 million people have been booked in two districts of Sindh on the charge of being involved in loot and arson that broke out after Dec 27 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Officials said that 227 FIRs had been lodged against 91,571 people for their alleged involvement in arson, loot and plunder of public and private property in Thatta district.

Thatta Task Force in-charge Colonel Kamran and Major Aatif Ali of the Thar Rangers revealed this while speaking at a press conference at Makli DPO office on Sunday. They said stolen goods worth Rs2 million had so far been recovered while only 10 rioters were arrested.

Interestingly, Hyderabad DIG Commander (retd) Shoukat Hussain Shah, in his press conference at the same venue just 30 hours earlier, had said that 81,840 people had been booked in 167 FIRs. Thus the Thatta police have showed involvement of 9,731 more people in loot and arson cases in just 30 hours.

The officials admitted that there were allegations that a majority of Pakistan People's Party activists, including party candidates for general elections and former legislators, had been booked on the instigation of the Shirazis and said that was why the police had not conducted any major crackdown to arrest those named in the FIRs.

They said that a committee, headed by the AIG (Establishment) and the in-charge DPO of Thatta, Zulfiqar Larik, was to examine these FIRs and would identify the real culprits.

The police have also recovered 30 official weapons including rifles and pistols out of total 39 snatched by rioters from different police stations of the district.

They said that seven out of 24 under-trial prisoners who had escaped from Thatta sub-jail had been arrested.

Any police official found guilty in implicating innocent people would not be spared and in this regard Thatta SHO Irfan Shah had already been suspended, they said.

Khairpur As many as 264 FIRs have been registered against 1,232 people, including PPP workers, an Awam Dost union council nazim, six journalists, and around 100,000 unidentified people in Khairpur district. Khairpur DPO Fida Hussain Mastoi told reporters on Sunday that 14 people had been arrested in the limits of A and B Section police stations.

The DPO said that the special police parties had been constituted for recovery of snatched items and conducting inquiries.

Nawabshah Hyderabad DIG (Operations) Syed Shaukat Shah has said that it was a responsibility of police to maintain law and order and Rangers were there only as backup support. Addressing a press conference at the DPO Office here on Sunday, the DIG said that he had received complaints of victimisation and had directed officers to work impartially. He said that at least 500 FIRs had been registered in his region and 474 people arrested. He said Hyderabad was the most affected district where banks, utility stores and government and private property were looted and burnt besides 350 vehicles were also set ablaze.

He said that a number of police officers had been suspended for negligence while show-cause notices had been issued to many. To a question about the re-arrest of people released by Rangers after scrutiny, he said that he was not aware of any such scrutiny, however, if a person found innocent he would be released after completion of legal formalities.

He said the police were not working under the command of Rangers and the force was there as a backup support for police.