Suspects involved in attack on police yet to be arrested

Incident occurred at rally held on Friday in support of death convict Mumtaz Qadri

KARACHI: Police officials have yet to arrest the suspects involved in attacking law enforcers during a rally held on Friday in support of death convict Mumtaz Qadri, the man who killed former Punjab governor Salman Taseer.

Two cases against the rally's 500 participants, particularly a dozen participants who allegedly attacked law enforcers and forcibly blocked the main thoroughfare, were registered at two separate police stations in District East on behalf of the state under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA). So far no one has been arrested, as the police officials claim to be "waiting for the right time to make the arrests".

The rally was organised by the Tanzeemat-e-Ahle Sunnat, a coalition of the Pakistan Sunni Tehreek (PST), Jamaat-e-Ahle Sunnat, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Pakistan and Nizaman-e-Mustafa, on Friday, demanding the release of Qadri, whose death sentence appeal has recently been turned down by the apex court.



The rally was organised without permission from the authorities and the situation worsened once the District East police attempted to put an end to it by catching about a dozen participants.

"They [the participants] attacked us. They even broke the windowpanes of the police van and beat up a cop," claimed Jamshed Quarters SHO Ikhlaq Ahmed while talking to The Express Tribune. "Interestingly, they attacked the police van and managed to secure the release of their comrades who were caught by the police for disturbing the law and order situation." He said that a case had been registered against the attackers not the organisers of the rally.

The case was registered against them under Clause 7 of the ATA for disturbing the law and order situation and attacking law enforcers. "So far we have not arrested anyone as we are waiting for the right time and will arrest them after Rabiul Awwal 12, since if we arrested them now it will create more disturbances," explained SHO Ahmed.

Similarly, another FIR was registered against them at the Soldier Bazaar police station. "A case under Clause 7 of the ATA was registered against a crowd of nearly 500 people," said Soldier Bazaar SHO Irshad Soomro. "In both the FIRs registered at Soldier Bazaar and Jamshed Quarters 10 participants of the rally were nominated by name as they were arrested by the police but their comrades got them freed, while the others nominated were unidentified."

He said that the Soldier Bazaar police registered a case against them for organising an armed rally, forcibly blocking the road and challenging the apex court's judgment.

On the other hand, one of the organisers, Shahid Ghauri, who is a senior leader of the PST, rejected the allegations. "No one attacked the police. These cases against the workers or rally's participants are fabricated," he claimed. "They [the police] asked us if we had permission [to hold the event]. My question is that when holding a protest is the right of every citizen, why would we need permission?" he asked. Ghauri said that the police registered the cases to pressure the organisers into not holding similar protests in the future.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2015.