Daily Times

KARACHI: A former advisor of late prime minister Benazir Bhutto and leader of Pakistan People’s Party Mushtaq Bhutto has once again been detained by the law enforcement personnel on Wednesday. He was also detained two years ago. Bhutto was rounded up in a raid conducted by the LEA’s in Gulistan-e-Jauhar. The motive behind his detention was not yet disclosed by the personnel.

This is a second time when Bhutto was detained by law enforcers as earlier Bhutto was detained by law enforcers on November 2015 but was later released.

“It was around 1:45am when Bhai Sahib (Mushtaq Bhutto) along with his family had returned after attending a wedding of some relative,” explained Mushtaq Bhutto’s younger brother Iqbal Bhutto. “He was taken into custody while he was parking his car in the parking lot of the apartment in front of his family members.”

Bhutto is a resident of Basera Apartment in Gulistan-e-Jauhar. The family claimed that the uniformed plainclothes personnel are behind the apprehension of Mushtaq Bhutto while some were in Rangers uniform.

“This time, Rangers has apprehended my brother while the last time, some other agency was behind my brother’s detention,” he explained. “In previous detention, the security personnel were asking the details of Asif Ali Zardari but my brother had replied them that he does not know anything about him since the agencies know him better.”

He said that Mushtaq Bhutto was not active in the party since the assassination of the Benazir Bhutto. PPP leaders said that they are also trying to trace the whereabouts of Bhutto. “This is a second time when he is been taken into custody,” said PPP’s senior leader Waqar Mehdi. “Bhutto was released after getting a clean chit in first detention so why has he been apprehended again.” The party is trying to trace his whereabouts but so far nothing has been found. When contacted the Rangers spokesperson regarding the arrest, he said that he was checking that either Bhutto was detained by Rangers or not.

Published in Daily Times, July 20^th , 2017.