Tharparkar NA-221: Fire suspends vote at Kesarar polling station

THARPARKAR: The law enforcement agencies on Sunday extinguished blaze at a polling station after a fire incident during the by election at NA-221 Tharparkar, ARY News reported.

Some miscreants entered at polling station of Kesarar in NA-221 and set the polling station on fire, which burnt the polling material for the by election. Some police uniforms were also burnt in the incident.

The Rangers personnel reached to the spot and arrested five suspects.

The polling process, which was interrupted due to the fire incident, resumed after the police and rangers controlled the situation.

“The incident at the polling station was an accident,” talking to media SSP Thar said. “The uniforms of some policemen in a bag were burnt in the fire,” the SSP said. “Some suspects have been arrested after the incident,” the district police chief added.

A tough contest is expected between the Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) contestant Mir Ali Shah Jeelani and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) candidate Nizamuddin Rahimoon in the by election.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has established 318 polling stations for the by-poll and declared 13 of them as sensitive while 95 as highly sensitive. Tharparkar’s NA-221 constituency have overall 281,900 voters.

Sindh Rangers has been deployed at sensitive and highly sensitive polling stations along with the installation of 200 CCTV cameras at various stations.

It is pertinent to mention here that the NA-221 became vacant after Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) MNA Pir Noor Muhammad Jeelani lost his life due to coronavirus in December 2020.