The Police on the instructions of the provincial caretaker government, has started to institute cases against the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) activists on charge of damaging public and private buildings, vehicles, banks and taking out processions to express their anger against the assassination of their party chairperson Benazir Bhutto.
The Dera Ghazi Khan police have registered a case against 300 activists for burning public and private vehicles, TMA offices, and hurling bricks and stones on buses and cars. Multan police have instituted cases against 110 workers and office bearers.
A major crackdown has been planned on the PPP. "Hundreds of party workers are expected to be arrested on charge of ransacking, looting and damaging public and private properties including banks especially in Sindh. They are being framed for rioting while protesting Bhutto's death," the Central Vice Chairman, PPP, Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani informed the newsmen on Sunday.
"The figure could go up to even 10,000," He said that the government should avoid upsetting the PPP workers who were already tormented over the death of their leader. He alleged that caretaker government was a puppet in the hands of Chaudhris who wanted to crush the PPP and forcing the workers to change their loyalties in favour of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q). A Government official said
"They will be shown no leniency for causing damages worth of billions of rupees."
The official said that several cases have already been registered against thousands of the PPP workers in different cities while many were in the pipeline in the light of preliminary investigations and reports. He said some cases have been lodged on the complaints of the PPP rivals whose properties were torched or ransacked.
Further, the official said many more arrests would also be made in Karachi while some of the PPP workers have already been apprehended and cases against them were being investigated.
"If the mourners did not break ATM machines or bank lockers to take cash and valuables out of them, did not loot jewellery markets, did not rape innocent girls and did not free the accused imprisoned in police stations, who were the criminals, who did all this?" the official asked.
He said the criminal elements would be uncovered, who, in the garb of political workers, played havoc with the public and private properties including over 50 deaths during the rioting against Bhutto's slaying.
Furthermore, the official said the federal government has strictly directed the Sindh authorities to move swiftly against the PPP elements, who resorted to destruction on December 28 and 29. He said it has been made clear to the Sindh government that all senior and junior officials who showed negligence or simply abandoned their duties during the protest should be dealt with severe actions.
Most of the arrests of the PPP activists, who were in the forefront of the violent agitation, are to take place in the next few weeks, which are crucial for the campaign for the February18 elections. Such measures will also dampen the PPP's electioneering.
The action against the PPP workers involved in alleged criminal acts during the protest would embolden their rivals including the PML-Q to some extent, who have been hiding themselves in fear of a severe backlash from the PPP.
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