SNF leaders acquitted in newspaper office attack case
Shamim Bano
Karachi: Two central leaders of the Sindh National Front (SNF) have been acquitted of the charges of ransacking the offices of a Sindhi language newspaper in Clifton in the year 2009. The Judicial Magistrate South exonerated Deputy Secretary General SNF Anwar Gujjar and Coordinator Karachi Razak Bajwa from the case on Monday for lack of evidence.
Chairman SNF Mumtaz Ali Bhutto and his party workers were booked for allegedly attacking the offices of a Sindhi language newspaper in the year 2009. According to the prosecution, 30 to 35 workers of the SNF, carrying weapons, attacked the newspaper office and used abusive language, manhandled the staff and threatened them with dire consequences for not publishing an article of Mumtaz Bhutto on the first death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto.
The name of Mumtaz Ali Bhutto was also added in the FIR which was later quashed by the Sindh High Court. Mumtaz Bhutto was arrested from Larkana, as the complainant – the managing director of the newspaper – had alleged that the attack was launched at the behest of Bhutto.
Later, Mumtaz Bhutto moved the SHC for removing his name from the FIR, which was done on the court orders after six months. The police had arrested Mumtaz Bhutto from his hometown Larkana on January 3, 2009, and he was released on bail on Januray 5. Later, Anwar Gujjar and Razzak Bajwa were also released on bail.
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