MITHI: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has strongly criticized Sindh police for “treating the citizens as their slaves”, and demanded to arrest the culprits involved in the death of a worker employed by a coal company.
A worker employed by a coal company who was beaten by the company’s security guards succumbed to his injuries in a hospital in Hyderabad. The family of deceased Daudo Bheel staged a sit-in protest on Mithi-Islamkot road in Thar Coal Block II in Islamkot, Tharparkar district.
Bheel was among almost a dozen persons, who were suspected of stealing iron from the company. According to his family, he was kept in illegal detention for some days and was also subjected to torture which later claimed his life.
The Foreign Minister also addressed the protesters through a phone call. “We condemn this cruelty,” he said and asked the police and the district administration to help the affected family get justice.
FM Qureshi also criticized SSP Tharparkar Hassan Sardar Niazi for no taking action against the culprits involved in the murder, saying that he should voluntarily get himself transferred from Tharparkar. “I want to make it clear here that the federal government will never allow PPP rulers to commit atrocities,” he added.
The family, along with several hundred men, women and children belonging to the Bheel community, marched through the streets of Islamkot carrying the victim’s body. They blocked the Thar Coal Road for more than 15 hours demanding arrest of the security guards.
They told local reporters that Dodo Bheel and some other workers of the company had been subjected to “intense torture” for several days by the guards over alleged theft. They said Dodo was rushed to the Hyderabad Civil Hospital for treatment of multiple injuries. He succumbed to his injuries on Thursday, they added.
Tharparkar SSP Hassan Sardar Niazi threatened the participants with stern action if they did not end their protest. He, however, agreed to get their FIR registered.
