THE arrest of Sindh National Front Chairman Mumtaz Bhutto was bound to make his party workers' hackles rise, and they blocked roads, burnt tyres and shouted slogans against the government. Since he is a heart patient, he was shifted to a hospital after he had been taken from his ancestral home in Larkana to Karachi. But if the office of a Sindhi-language newspaper, which is reported to have refused to publish his article on the occasion of the first death anniversary of Ms Benazir Bhutto, was really attacked, as official sources allege, at his instance, it is indeed a condemnable act that violates the principle of the freedom of press. However, the authorities' version that SNF workers ransacked the paper's office, took the editor and some others hostage and hurled threats, was denied by him, and he said that a few workers had staged a peaceful protest at the publication of some insulting material. There is urgent need for an impartial inquiry into the circumstances of his arrest to dispel the general misgivings about the official story. That would be the best way to counter his accusation that he has become a target of political victimisation. He told a private TV channel that he would continue to fearlessly expose the real murderers of Ms Bhutto, and maintained that they were the same who had killed her brother, Mir Murtaza Bhutto. Much against the general expectations, the official machinery, that has been operating under a PPP-led government since last April, has adopted an obviously slow pace in pursuing her case. One hopes that the culprits would be identified, with or without the help of the UN, and brought to book.