Crackdown on touts: Police pick up passers-by, visitors to excise office

Over 100 visitors, passers-by, employees and students arrested during action against touts

ISLAMABAD: The capital police on Monday arrested dozens of innocent visitors and employees of the Excise and Taxation Department in an apparent crackdown on touts and agents active at the excise office.

Police teams in plainclothes cordoned off the area in the morning and detained all the people outside the excise office and from nearby tea stalls.

An official of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration said the raid was conducted to arrest the touts. However, many of the 124 taken into custody were either common citizens visiting the office for registration of their vehicles, employees of the excise office or the passers-by.

The law-enforcers also picked up some students who were visiting the nearby offices of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for degree verification. By the evening, the police had released 80 people. The rest, claimed to tout, were still in police custody.

Police also blocked the road for around three hours causing difficulties for motorists.

“Police detained innocent people during the operation,” said Muhammad Akram, a visitor.

Muhammad Bilal, a resident of Sector G-8/2, said he came to the excise office for registration of his vehicle but was picked up by the police and detained at I-9 Police Station.

Interestingly, the police also arrested some of the employees of the excise office even after they proved their identity.

“I was working in the office when suddenly four policemen barged into the room and picked me up and took me to the police station,” said an official, who was released in the evening.

He said apparently the raid was conducted to keep the minister happy.

The official, who requested anonymity, told The Express Tribune that Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had ordered the crackdown after an official of the ministry complained directly to the minister about the touts.

SP Cap (retd) Ilyas Ahmed confirmed that the raid was conducted by a special police team on directions of the minister. He said 80 people were released after identification while the rest 44, all claimed to be touts, were in custody.

Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Mushtaq Ahmed, however, denied that the raid was ordered by the minister. He said the administration had taken action against touts in the past as well.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2016.