Senior journalist and analyst Hamid Mir has claimed the Sindh government informed Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Muhammad Zubair that the provincial police chief had been “kidnapped by rangers at 4 am and forced to issue the orders for the arrest of Maryam Nawaz’s husband, Captain (r) Safdar”.

Earlier in the day, Karachi police arrested Capt (r) Safdar for violating the sanctity of Jinnah Mausoleum by raising slogans at the grave of the founder of Pakistan. The development was shared by his wife and PML-N vice president, Maryam, who tweeted that police broke into her room to arrest Capt (r) Safdar.

“Unfortunate incident. Sindh Govt informed PML-N leader Muhammad Zubair that IG [insector general] Sindh was kidnapped by Rangers at 4 in the morning he was brought in sector commander’s office where addnl IG was already present and were forced to issue the orders for the arrest of Cpt Rtd Safdar [sic],” Mir claimed in a tweet.

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It was, however, rejected by another senior journalist, who said the IG was “fully onboard with the arrest”.

Maintaining that internal rifts were marring the affairs of the joint opposition’s Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), Kamran Khan quoted sources as saying that all claims regarding the IG’s arrest were not true.

The tweets come as condemnations pour in against Safdar’s arrest that is being termed “inappropriate” while some, on the other hand, laud the authorities for the same.

People had earlier also been criticising the Sindh government of joint opposition’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for backstabbing the PML-N a day after the mammoth anti-government rally of the PDM in Karachi.