Tea stall owner beaten to death ‘for asking cops to pay’

His family withdraws complaint ‘in reverence for Ramazan’

FAISALABAD: A tea stall owner was allegedly beaten to death by Gulberg police constables at his stall on Saturday night. Other customers at the shop said it was because Muhammad Fayyaz, the victim, had demanded payment for the tea and edibles the cops had ordered.

Muhammad Jamil, the victim’s brother, told journalists that some cops from the Gulberg police station would frequent his brother’s tea stall. “However, they would often leave without paying for the food they had ordered and that had worried Fayyaz.”

Jamil said he had decided to put his foot down. “On Saturday night, he asked the three constables at his shop to pay for the tea they had ordered.” He said the cops had flared up and started beating him up and using abusive language against him.

According to people in the area, the cops forcibly shuttered down the tea stall and told the other customers to leave. Jamil said that they then beat Fayyaz up badly.

“By the time they were done, he was in such a terrible state that we took him to a hospital but he died on the way there,” Jamil said.

Gulberg SHO Waheed Shahid, however, denied the allegations. “Fayyaz was a drug addict. He had lost control of his senses after taking drugs and had barged into a house in the neighbourhood.”

Shahid said people in the area had beaten him and clubbed him to death. He also said that the family of the deceased had taken back their complaint and forgiven the accused constables.

Jamil said they had decided to take back the complaint. “We understand that it is Ramazan and we do not want to pursue legal action against those involved in murdering my brother.”

Akram Ali, one of the neighbours, said that the police had put immense pressure on Fayyaz’s family to take back the complaint. “They had threatened them with dire consequences if the family continued to pursue the murder case.”

He said Fayyaz’s family were very poor. “They are not close to any influentials in the area… Fayyaz’s brother and father are daily wage workers. It is only natural that they would bow before the threats and the might of the police.”

The police denied that they had pressured the family to compromise.



Published in The Express Tribune, June 13^th, 2016.