SUKKUR: The personnel of municipal corporation and district administration aided by police personnel razed to the ground Sul(lcur zone office of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan early on Thursday morning while police took into custody two MQM-P leaders for obstructing ongoing anti-encroachment operation.

The party workers and sympathisers later gathered at the site that was once their party ofñce and held protest against its demolition and arrest of zonal organiser Mohammad Naeem Khan and another office-bearer, Sajid Ghouri.The protesters termed the operation discriminatory against MQM-P and argued that the party office was singled out for antiencroachment operation as no action had been taken so far against the building of Sukl(ur Press Club that had been erected within Mohammad Bin Qasim Park and Sindh Islamic Centre that had been built within Ghazi Abdul Rasheed Park.

The party had in this connection filed petitions in the Sukkur bench of the Sindh High Court to seek relief but the court disposed of them declaring the petitions nonmaintainable, said sources.

The sources said that officials of district administration, municipal corporation and police me t in Sukkur Municipal Corporation office a day before to finalise decisions andformed a team for carrying out the operation.

Early on Thursday morning, the team comprising officials of revenue, municipal corporation and anti-encroachment force cordoned off the thickly populated area of Jinnah Chowk and started the operation with the help of heavy machinery under the supervision of municipal commissioner Pir Wahid Bux.

MQM-P office-bearers Naeem Khan and Sajid Ghouri tried to resist the operation and exchanged hot words with the officials but they were soon detained by police and shifted to an unknown place.

They were not even allowed to take out furniture, fixtures and other valuable items including TV set, fridge, generator, photo-stat machine, sofa set and bed from the office and everything turned into rubble within minutes.

When former MQM-P MPA Dewan Chand Chawla tried to persuade the officers concerned to give them some time for removal of items from the office, policemen caught his hand and tool( him away, said the sources.

The sources said that local leaders and their lawyers were in contact with the central leadership and were thinking of options available to them to stop the operation.

Municipal Commissioner Pir Wahid Bux said that the operation had been launched for removing encroachments from parks in compliance with orders of Supreme Court of Pakistan.