NAWABSHAH: Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party information secretary Nisar Keerio, along with 34 party activists, was booked under Section 6/7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act and various sections of Pakistan Penal Code for allegedly leading a violent mob that attacked a police party and blocked the road leading to the Peoples Medical University Hospital on Saturday (Oct 21).

Mr Keerio and other STP workers had started a protest drive last Sunday by pitching a camp outside the local press club hours after the B-Section police of Nawabshah declared arrest of his younger brother, Salman, in what they claimed to be an ‘encounter’.

According to the police, Salman was wounded and arrested after he indulged in the encounter with them on Saturday evening. They said they had taken Salman to the PMU Hospital for treatment under custody and soon afterwards, a group of STP workers led by Nisar Keerio assembled in front of the hospital to demand Salman’s release and action against the police party involved in shooting him.

Rejecting the claims that Salman was a suspected criminal and that he had fired on the police, the STP workers maintained that it was a ‘staged encounter’ resorted to by the police after Salman’s arrest on political grounds. They demanded immediate release of Salman.

FIR claims unruly mob tried to storm hospital’s trauma centre in bid to free suspect wounded in ‘encounter’

STP chairman Dr Qadir Magsi, speaking on video link from London to the district leaderships of his party leaders on Sunday, called for protest demonstrations across Sindh over the police ‘excesses’.

Led by Nisar Keerio, local STP workers continued their protest for a third consecutive day on Tuesday raising slogans for Salman’s release and action against the police party. The area police did not intervene to end the protest. However, they registered an FIR on Tuesday on behalf of the state against Nisar Keerio and 34 other party activists on a complaint lodged by SI Darban Ali Gopang at the A-Section police of the city.

The complainant stated that on Saturday evening, a mobile van belonging to the B-Section police was attacked by a violent mob of STP workers with rocks and clubs. Panes of the van were smashed by the attackers who also resorted to aerial firing with Kalashnikovs and other automatic weapons, he claimed.

The STP workers also blocked the road leading to the hospital and obstructed police in the discharge of official duty in their attempt to get Salman Keerio forcibly freed from police custody, the complainant stated. However, he added, police locked the door of the hospital’s trauma centre, where the suspect was under treatment.

The suspected attackers named in the FIR (No. 283/23) included Subhan Magsi, Rafiq Mallah, Shahnawaz Keerio, Buhdhal Magsi, Ali Gul Magsi, Shakir Qazi and Hidayatulla Keerio, besides Nisar Keerio.

Despite fearing a crackdown, local STP leaders and activists were continuing with their protest at the camp till late Tuesday evening.

Speaking to the media, Nisar Keerio repeated his demand that his brother be released immediately and action be taken against SHOs and personnel of the B-Section and Airport police for wounding him in the ‘fake encounter’ as well as implicating STP leaders and workers in ‘false’ cases.

He regretted that neither the Shaheed Benazirabad SSP nor any other senior police official bothered to visit the protest camp and hear their grievance since Sunday.

About a future course of action, he said sit-in would be held on the nearby section of the National Highway to block intercity traffic if the party’s demands were not met.

Meanwhile, vehicular traffic along the road leading to the DC office and sessions court remained disturbed due to the pitching of the protest camp in front of the press club.

The ultimate traffic jams on different other roads across the city were witnessed as a fallout. Schoolchildren especially suffered as their vans remained stuck in different areas.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2023