Pakistani Singer Akram Rahi arrested in fraud case

LAHORE: Folk singer Akram Rahi was arrested on the Lahore High Court premises on Tuesday after cancellation of his pre-arrest bail in a fraud case.

Police arrested the singer as he came out of a courtroom, and took him to the Mozang Police Station.

Justice Tariq Javed dismissed Rahi’s bail application, which a district and sessions judge had also rejected earlier.

According to details, police had booked Rahi under sections 420, 468 of PPC on the complaint of one Akram Bodla, who had alleged that the singer and his four accomplices, including Akram Sabir and Ramzan Qadri, were fraudulently trying to transfer the possession of his three-kanal house in Model Town with the help of fake documents.

The complainant had said that Rahi tried to get a court decree against him by keeping the suit completely out of his knowledge. He said he joined the case after he came to know about it, and later it was dismissed.

On the other hand, Rahi pleaded that he was being implicated in a false case, and thus deserved bail.

The complainant’s counsel, Muhammad Shah, while opposing the application, said that the singer defrauded his client and did not deserve to be released on bail. He also contended that his accomplices were still at large. (DT)

72 criminals arrested in Karachi in last 24 hours

KARACHI: A person was killed in an incident while police nabbed seventy two criminals from different parts of the city yesterday.

According to the details, a man was killed and another injured yesterday in firing in Kanwari Colony within the limits of Pirabad police station, police and rescue sources said. Police said the residents of Kanwari Colony were staging a protest demonstration against search operation when unidentified persons opened indiscriminate fire on rangers vehicle near Ibrahim Masjid on Manghopir road which was retaliated by the rangers. As a result, Ateeq, a young men, aged, 20, was killed while 25-year old Tahir received bullet injuries, Chippa sources said. The body and the injured were taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

Police arrest 72

Sindh police during last 24 hours arrested 72 accused. As per details, on the instructions of Inspector General Police Sindh, the police continued crackdown on the anti-social elements and criminals in the province. They arrested 17 accused involved in robberies and street crime, while 08 criminals were arrested red-handed from the scene of crime. Moreover 34 absconders and three proclaimed offenders were arrested and nine gangs of bandits busted. Police recovered 19 pistols, 02 Kalashnikovs, two guns, two revolvers, 31 rounds, and narcotics from the arrested accused, says a Central Police Office release here yesterday.

Armed men attack IBA Sukkur registrar

SUKKUR: The registrar of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) in Sukkur was seriously attacked by armed men in what the institute is saying is retaliation for deposing against an MPA in court in a land grabbing case.

Registrar Zahid Khand was on his way to work when he was intercepted near the campus on Airport Road on Wednesday morning by unidentified armed men who opened fire on him and took off. He was immediately rushed to a private hospital in Sukkur, where doctors were unable to treat him, so he was shifted to Aga Khan Hospital in Karachi in critical condition.

Abad police station head constable Abdul Jabbar Mangi told The Express Tribune that they have registered a case on Khand’s complaint against three men, MPA Sheheryar Mahar’s employee Ishaq Mahar and two unidentified men, but no arrests have been made yet.

Khand told the police that his attackers said to him before firing that this was a lesson for dragging their sardar to court.

IBA Director Nisar Ahmed Siddiqui told The Express Tribune that about one year back Sardar Ghous Bux Mahar’s younger son MPA Sheheryar Mahar had purchased land in Deh Arain near IBA from Al Shifa Trust where he started constructing a housing scheme. A piece of land measuring 5.5 acres belonging to IBA and meant for a girls hostel was lying adjacent to his land.

According to Siddiqui, eight or nine months back IBA registrar Khand lodged an FIR against MPA Sheheryar Mahar and one Bahadur Khoso for occupying IBA’s land after beating its guards and other employees. The case went to court and on Monday, December 6, Registrar Khand appeared before the bench and recorded his statement against Sheheryar Mahar.

The Express Tribune was unable to immediately contact Sheheryar whose cell phone was turned off but it did reach his brother Arif Mahar, who is a former zila nazim for Shikarpur. “Sheheryar has been in the UK since around Eid,” he said. When informed about the case and asked for his response, he said: “We are not like that. We don’t do this kind of thing. Sheheryar has gone into business and businessmen don’t do this kind of thing.”

IBA Deputy Registrar Azhar Ali Soomro later told The Express Tribune that Khand was shot in the right and left legs.

His right leg was fractured as a result as was his right middle finger. He was, however, stated to be in stable condition.

“This war is between an educationist and land grabbers,” said Siddiqui. “I am not fighting this war for my own sake, but for providing better education facilities to the people of upper Sindh and especially girls.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9th, 2010.