LARKANA, Oct 13: The sessions court here on Wednesday released seven villagers including three women and two children who had been kept in illegal confinement at the Rabi Shakh police post of the Qubo Saeed Khan police station.

The court also ordered police to produce five more villagers, said to be in illegal custody, on the next hearing. Those freed were Shahnawaz, Badruddin, Ms Shahzadi, Ms Kori, Ms Soonhari and two minor children, Najiullah and eight-month old Shabana.

They were recovered from the police post on Tuesday in a surprise raid by a court official who was ordered to conduct the raid by the judge on a petition filed by Qamruddin Chandio.

The petitioner alleged that his five more relatives namely Gulzar, Mohammed Nawaz, Nasrullah, Moula Bakhsh and Gulbahar, picked up by the Qubo Saeed Khan police, were still with them and detained at an undisclosed place.

He said that police were harassing and picking up his relatives on the pretext of their relations with a bandit Wichhoon Chandio, with whom they had no connection. The SHO of Qubo Saeed Khan police did not appear in the court where an ASI representing him said that the SHO had gone to a superior court in connection with a case.

The ASI in-charge of the police post from where the detainees were recovered also appeared in the court. The ASIs sought another date of hearing on which the matter was fixed for October 21.

Habiullah Ghouri and Ali Gohar Ansari, the counsels for the petitioner, told the court that the in-charge of the police post had failed to produce any valid documents showing the arrests.

REPORTS SOUGHT: The deputy district officers of education department have been ordered to submit final reports of fund utilization for 2003-4 attested by the district accounts officers with the offices of the district nazim and DCO within a week.

This order was issued by DCO Abdul Razaq Qureshi at a meeting of education officers held here on Wednesday. He also ordered the officials to regularly submit monthly reports with the EDO of finance and planning department by 10th day of every month.

The DCO directed the supervisory staff to pay surprise visits to schools, detect ghost teachers and report about the closed schools. He asked the officers of college education wing to submit reports on requirements of those colleges of which summary for new establishment had not been approved so that arrangements could be made to make them functional.