950830

Jamaat leaders slate

police, rangers'

atrocities in Karachi

KARACHI: Jammat-e-Islami leaders, including Muzaffar Hashmi (MNA), Shahabuddin, Nazim-e-Alla Liaquatabad, and Javed Rasheed, Nazim of Information, Nazimabad, have expressed great indignation over the "atrocious and insulting behaviour meted out to the respectable citizens by the rangers, police and other forces now operating in Karachi and Urban Sindh".

In a joint statement issued here the Jamaat-e-Islami leaders condemned the every day siege of different colonies and house-to-house searches for so-called terrorists "causing humiliation and disgrace to the respectable families."

They have challenged the legality of mass searches of all the houses. They have asked the government, if "its minister and functionaries consider all the Urdu speaking families terrorists - if not, why do the rangers, police and other functionaries break into every idividual house on the pretext of search for arms and terrorists and take male members into custody to unknown places.

They alleged that the forces "during search behave in an insulting manner with the women, and also loot and damage properties."

Such treatment deepens the hatred of the common people against these forces and might lead to the repitition of the historic debacle of former East Pakistan, they declared.-PPI