Over 100 booked under terrorism charges in Pak for attacking police, damaging properties during PM's visit to flood-hit area

Over 100 people have been booked under terrorism charges in Pakistan's Sindh province after they attacked police personnel, pelted stones and damaged public properties during a visit by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto to a flood-hit area.

Karachi: Over 100 people have been booked under terrorism charges in Pakistan's Sindh province after they attacked police personnel, pelted stones and damaged public properties during a visit by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto to a flood-hit area. Prime Minister Sharif along with Foreign Minister Bhutto, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and other ministers on Friday visited Sukkur district to assess the flood situation and interacted with displaced families in relief camps. During their visit to a relief camp, rain-affected families from different areas blocked some roads against the administration's failure to drain out stagnant rainwater.

According to a police spokesperson, when officials were discharging their duty outside the camp, some rioters, including women, blocked the main road, creating a law and order situation and inciting the flood-affected families against the officials. While the Prime Minister and others were meeting affected families in the relief tents, some people kept on inciting others to attack them and also attacked and damaged public properties and also mishandled police personnel who tried to stop them, the spokesperson said.

He claimed that some people instigated the rain-affected families from different areas to also block some roads against the administration's failure to drain out stagnant rainwater. He claimed that the mob also smashed windshields of vehicles as a result of which traffic flow remained suspended for eight hours. We have lodged a case under Anti-Terrorism Act against the miscreants, the spokesperson said, adding action would be taken against them as per law as soon as they were identified in CCTV camera footage and other videos showing them creating a law and order situation.

Deaths from widespread flooding in Pakistan topped 1,000 since mid-June. Flash flooding from the heavy rains has washed away villages and crops as soldiers and rescue workers evacuated stranded residents to the safety of relief camps and provided food to thousands of displaced Pakistanis. Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority reported the death toll since the monsoon season began earlier than normal this year - in mid- June - reached 1,033 people after new fatalities were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southern Sindh provinces. (PTI)