Noise about ‘kidnapping’ of police officer in Pakistan, army orders investigation



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In protest, the army chief, General Kamar Javed Bajwa, ordered an investigation into the noise kidnapping allegations.

Local politicians in Sindh province allege that paramilitary forces abducted provincial police chief Mushtaq Ahmed Mahar on Monday and forced retired opposition leader Captain Mohammad Safdar to sign an arrest warrant, Reuters reported.

Safdar, a member of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and leader of the opposition, was arrested after a protest rally in Karachi on Monday and was released on bail a few hours later.

The Sindh government says it did not order Safdar’s arrest. The police have been forced to arrest Safdar.

The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), made up of the PML-N and allied opposition parties, has been organizing protests across Pakistan since last week against the ‘puppet’ government of Prime Minister Imran Khan and accusing the Pakistani army of meddling in politics.

Son-in-law Mohammad Safdar, daughter of former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, has become one of the vocal voices in the protests.

Nawaz’s daughter and Safdar’s wife, Maryam Nawaz, told the media on Monday that the phone of Sindh Police Chief Inspector General (IGP), Mushtaq Ahmed, had been seized. They took him to the Sector Commander’s office and asked him to sign an arrest warrant. He was released after signing.

The accusations caused a stir in the political arena. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, leader of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in Sindh, has publicly called on army and intelligence chiefs to investigate allegations of kidnapping of police officers.

Bilawal, complaining, said the incident had crossed the line. Meanwhile, several senior Sindh police officials went on strike on Tuesday to protest the kidnapping.

However, after the army’s order to investigate the kidnapping, IGP Mahar and other police officers decided not to go on strike for the time being to see what came of the investigation, Sindh police said in a tweet.



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