DAWN/The News International, KARACHI
24 May 1999, Monday, 8 Safar 1420

Nawaz wants to impose dictatorship: JI

KARACHI: A large number of Jama'at-e-Islami (JI) workers on Sunday marched on New M A Jinnah Road to protest against the arrest of party chief Qazi Husain Ahmad. The workers of Jama'at and its sister concerns, after hearing the news of arrest of Qazi in Peshawar, gathered at party's provincial headquarters Idara Noor-e-Haq on Sunday evening. Later, the demonstrators, led by JI City Chief Naimatullah Khan Advocate, marched on New M A Jinnah Road and chanted anti-government slogans, expressing their anguish on their leader's arrest. Addressing the protesters, Naimatullah condemned the arrest and said that Nawaz Sharif wanted to impose his dictatorship in the country. Successive governments tried to harm the JI but they failed in their attempts, he added. "Qazi was going to Mehmand Agency to address a pubic meeting but he was arrested unconstitutionally by the government. Qazi and JI workers could not allow the government to accomplish its evil desires," he added. Secretary General JI Karachi Shaikh Rafiq Ahmad also spoke on the occasion. Earlier, addressing a press conference at Idara Noor-e-Haq, Naimatullah appealed to the Chief Justice to take suo motto action over the alleged negligence of the govt in connection with the recent cyclone.

Altaf blames govt for cyclone losses

KARACHI: The Muttahida chief Altaf Hussain has appealed on humanitarian ground to all Haqparast people and philanthropists to extend every possible financial, material and medical help to the cyclone-hit people. In a statement, he charged the government with committing criminal negligence, adding that despite much advance information repeatedly announced through electronic media, the government functionaries took no precautionary measures, as a result thousands of people suffered due to this calamity. Hundreds of people lost their lives, while thousands of families rendered shelter-less due to callousness of the government, he added. Altaf asked the people not to depend on the government help, and appealed to all Haqparast people and philanthropists to extend all possible help to the cyclone affectees.

10 vehicles taken away, 2 murdered
KARACHI, May 23: At least ten vehicles were taken away by carjackers and motorcycle-lifters from different places of the city on Sunday. The police sources said that the vehicles included eight cars and two motorcycles.

Two cars were snatched in Clifton and Garden and six others were lifted in Korangi, Bahadurabad, Ferozabad, Jamshed Quarters and two others in North Nazimabad.

Two motorcycles were lifted in Risala and North Nazimabad police limits.

The police claimed to have recovered five stolen cars wanted by Soldier Bazaar, Darakhshan, Preedy, Joharabad and Gulzar-i-Hijri police, while four motorcycles, wanted by Garden, North Nazimabad, Rizvia Society police, were recovered and one motorcycle was found abandoned.

TORTURED: A 13-year-old boy was found dead behind the bushes at Port Bin Qasim. Reports said that the deceased, identified as Ghulam Rasool, aged 13, had marks of torture on his body. The body was shifted to the mortuary for an autopsy to determine the cause of death. The police said that the motive for the murder could be ascertained after the suspects were caught and grilled.

DECOMPOSED: A partially decomposed body of a man was found in Rehri Goth, Quaidabad. He was identified as Zakir Hussain from an ID card found on his body. Marks of wounds were suspected on the body. It was shifted to the Jinnah Post-graduate Medical Centre (JPMC) for an autopsy to ascertain the exact cause of death. The police had no further details.

CORPSE: The body of an unidentified 17-year-old boy was found floating at the Clifton Beach. It was fished out and shifted to the JPMC for an autopsy. The deceased was later identified as Irfan, a resident of Gulshan-i- Iqbal, Edhi sources said.

The sources also said that three boys believed to have drowned at the Clifton beach. The body of one of them, aged 17, was found floating on the sea whereas the search for two others were being made.

600 villages destroyed in coastal areas
THATTA, May 23: Around 600 villages in the coastal areas and over 150,000 acres of farmland in Sindh were drastically hit by the cyclone, official sources said. A visit to these areas by Dawn staffers showed that the communications system had completely collapsed in the worst-affected areas of Keti Bandar, Shah Bandar, Chauhar Jamali and Badin in Thatta district and Seerani and Golarchi in Badin district.

The local administration has been facing hardships in carrying out the rescue operation as the land routes in the coastal areas came under water after the cyclone.

The people trapped in the affected areas were almost cut off from the rest of the world and had been facing starvation as no food could be supplied to them except through helicopters.

However, some of the affected villagers were provided with cooked food and other essential goods by a number of Pakistan Navy helicopters.

Although the Wapda and PTCL men were at work to restore their respective systems in the Thatta city, they seemed helpless in slums as well as coastal villages and towns where two to three-foot-high water was standing. Power supply could not be restored even to the local administration's offices.

Maj-Gen Khalid Munir, chief of the rescue operation, said the cyclone had lashed 180 kilometres along the coastal areas from Ali Bandar to Keti Bandar and its inland influence was 10 to 15 km where it played havoc with people and their property.

Meanwhile, thirty-six hours after the catastrophe hit the coastal belt of Southern Sindh widespread relief operations were not seen though some relief goods had been distributed in Ahmed Rajo Goth. People from other areas said they had not received any assistance.

IT commissioner, family brutally killed

LAHORE: Police found charred bodies of Lahore Income Tax Commissioner Zulfiqar Ali, his wife Zarina, teenage son Shamoon, daughter Maheen and a young servant, Naseer, at their Shadman residence on Sunday morning. Police said the victims were strangled before their bodies were doused with petrol and set alight.Valuables and two cars were missing from the house.

Police, who earlier suspected the official's servants of committing the crime, later arrested three people, including the victims' former driver Muhammad Hussain, and recovered the valuables looted by them. Bilal and Irshad were the other two arrested. Their fourth accomplice Javed, however, is still at large.

At a press conference where the police produced Muhammad Hussain before newsmen, the DIG Lahore said that the motive for the murder was revenge and the dacoity was committed as a cover-up. Former driver Muhammad Hussain told the press that the commissioner's wife used to subject her servants to severe torture. The couple's attitude towards servants was very disgusting, he said. The commissioner transferred him from Lahore to Bahawalpur and then brought him back a number of times, he added.

Hussain said he along with his accomplices entered the victims' house at 11:00 pm on Saturday. "But Shamoon woke up and ran to catch us. Irshad, therefore stabbed him to death. While tying the family up, we told them that we were doing it in revenge," he added. Hussain said the commissioner's wife Zarina had to be taken into the basement after she started making noise. "There we tortured and killed her and then killed the commissioner, his daughter and the servant," he added.

After burning the victims, the killers locked the main door of the house and drove away in the commissioner's official jeep (LOB-5923). The commissioner's other car (FDR/40) was also taken. Capt Raza Baloch, a resident of the area, was the first to enter the victims' house after he saw flames coming out and spotted two men driving along the street in the commissioner's official jeep at 6:10 am on Sunday. Baloch scaled the wall and tried to go inside the house. He told one of his neighbours to call the fire brigade which reached there in few minutes. After breaking open the main door, the firemen entered the house and started extinguishing the fire. They managed to put it out in half an hour and recovered the charred bodies of Zulfiqar, Shamoon and Naseer. The bodies of Zarina and Maheen, however, were not damaged by the flames.

Burns and bruises on Zarina's body confirmed Hussain's statement that the killers harboured extreme hatred against her and subjected her to severe torture. Torture marks on the commissioner's body also suggested that vengeance was involved. Safdar, the present driver of the family, was also presented before the press and he told newsmen that once when he was seeking permission from the commissioner to go home, Shamoon had hit him in the face with a glass, causing serious head injuries to him.

The unfortunate Naseer of Hujra Shah Mukeen was employed by the commissioner only three days ago and was the sole son of his family. He is survived by four sisters and his parents are residing at Chungi Amarsadhu. Neither the police nor the commissioner's relatives condoled with Naseer's mother.

The police attitude towards Naseer's mother was also disturbing, after her arrival at the scene where her young son had been brutally killed. Police handled her roughly and asked her to sit on the ground in front of the house and wait. She was also not allowed to see the body of her only son. The deceased's father was a labourer. The news of the family's killing spread like jungle fire in the area. But only a few area people gathered at the site of the incident. The next door neighbours did not even know the name of the commissioner's wife.

Of the senior officials, the SSP Lahore was the first to arrive at 8:25 am. The DIG got there at 9:00 am. Officials of several other agencies also rushed to the spot and sealed the house. Entrance of anyone was barred as investigations continued. Relatives of the commissioner's wife, who arrived at 9:35 am, forcibly entered the premises, refusing to wait outside. One of the ladies pushed away the policemen and entered the house.

© DAWN Group of Newspapers, 1999
© JANG Group, 1999

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