Political rivalry: PML-N, PPP workers ransack hospital’s emergency ward

Police have registered an FIR against 50 political workers

BAHALWALPUR:

A brawl that erupted between scores of members of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Peoples Party workers on Tuesday continued at the Emergency Ward of the Khanpur THQ Hospital, Rahim Yar Khan district, on Tuesday night. Police have registered a case against 50 people.

In the days leading up to local government election in Kotla Mahi village, an influential family had split along political lines with Jam Arz Muhammad of the PPP on one side and Sardar Mureed Khan Sarai, a former PML-N district council member, on the other.

Mureed Khan Sarai was running for chairman on a PML-N ticket and his nephew Javed Khan Sarai was running for vice-chairman on a PPP ticket. Mureed Khan Sarai had lost to Arz Muhammad and Javed Khan Sarai won the vice-chairman seat.

Residents of the area said that the two groups had clashed often in the last few months. On Tuesday, around 40 supporters of both groups brawled and several of them were injured.

The injured party workers were brought to the Khanpur Tehsil Headquarters Hospital where they were being treated when their attendants started brawling again. Hospital attendants said that they had turned the hospital’s Emergency Ward into a battlefield and had ransacked the ward. The window panes of the ward were shattered and a lot of the furniture there was broken.

The hospital medical superintendent called the Khanpur City police. A heavy contingent arrived and took some of the men to the police station. An FIR was registered against members of both sides on the complaint filed by the THQ Hospital medical superintendent.   Khanpur City SHO Saifullah Korai told The Express Tribune that they had arrested four people on Tuesday night – two from each group – but they were given bail and released. He said they had registered an FIR against 50 people – 30 nominated suspects and 20 unidentified suspects. He said 15 people from either side had been nominated in the FIR and 10 from each side were mentioned as unidentified.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th,  2016.