Ex-head of police facilitation cell remanded to jail custody

A court here on Thursday remanded former In Charge of Women and Children Facilitation Cell in the SSP office, Junior Clerk Maria Sario, and 15 transgenders to judicial custody a day after they were booked in an FIR and arrested for creating a ruckus inside the office of SSP Hyderabad.

HYDERABAD, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Jun, 2026) A court here on Thursday remanded former In Charge of Women and Children Facilitation Cell in the SSP office, Junior Clerk Maria Sario, and 15 transgenders to judicial custody a day after they were booked in an FIR and arrested for creating a ruckus inside the office of SSP Hyderabad.

Earlier the Cantt police produced Sario, Pinky Shaikh, Aleza Chandio, Zohaib Chandio, Ali Ghulam Qambrani, Amaan Makrani Baloch, Soonam Durrani and other transgenders before the court in a police truck.

Some lawyers in the court protested that Sario had not been handcuffed after which the police put shackles on her wrists.

The SHO Cant police station Javed Iqbal Malik, who became complainant in the FIR, apprised the court that on instigation of Sario a group of transgenders organized a violent protest inside the SSP office.

He added that the protesters also forcibly tried to remove Sub Inspector Benazir Zardari, In Charge of Women and Children Facilitation Cell, from her office to unlawfully reinstate Sario in her former position in the SSP office.

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The SHO alleged that the baton-wielding protesters also broke one of the doors of the SSP office and blocked movement of vehicles.

The police have also recovered a voice message in which Sario allegedly provoked Pinky to lead the protest so that the cell's incumbent In Charge Zardari could be removed.

Sario, although a Junior Clerk, had previously headed women and children rights, minority affairs and transgender issues desks in the SSP office.

She was removed from that position in December, 2025, by the ex-SSP Adeel Hussain Chandio after she allegedly slapped a uniformed lady police official, Assistant Sub Inspector.

Sario's husband Naveed Sario, a clerk in the SSP office, was also suspended and the couple was later transferred to Karachi.Advocate Sumer Zaman, representing transgenders and Maria, said the protesters were not armed and were protesting peacefully.

Talking to the media in the court's premises, he said the FIR was meant to stifle freedom of expression.