Hindu man beaten for eating during Ramazan being pushed to ‘forgive and forget’

Gokal Das was beaten up by police official Ali Hassan Haidrani and his brother in Ghotki for eating in Ramazan

ISLAMABAD: Gokal Das, 85, badly thrashed by a policeman and his brother in Ghtoki ostensibly for having the nerve to be seen eating during the fasting period, is being pressed to ‘forgive and forget’ and let off the culprits who beat him up black and blue.

The accused men, it is learnt, are trying to resolve the issue through the Hindu Panchaiyat (a council of local elders) and they (the accused) are persistently sending their representatives to the affected family to settle the issue out of court, but the affected family is not ready to oblige.



Gobind Ram, the son of Gokal Das, told The Express Tribune that at least 20 persons, representing the accused, visited his father and tried to persuade him to settle the matter out of court. He said that these emissaries were informed that they might have pardoned them if they had come earlier. “But, now it is too late because a case has already been registered. Let the law take its course.”

“The local SP (Masood Bangash) is taking a special interest in this case. He has assured us that justice will prevail,” he said.

Gokal Das was beaten up by police official Ali Hassan Haidrani and his brother in Ghotki, Sindh for eating ‘while Muslims were fasting’.

The poor elderly man, who belongs to Hindu community, was having a plate of chickpeas biryani he got from someone as alms.

Currently, Haidrani and his brother are in police custody under a 13-day remand.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2016.