Coercion : Snooker club owner alleges police inaction

Says police omitted extortion, terrorism sections from FIR

MULTAN: The owner of a snooker club on Bosan Road has alleged that Gulgasht police have been favouring certain “extortionists” who have threatened him with dire consequences if he does not give them protection money.

Tanveer Haider, owner of the club, told The Express Tribune that Munna Ali and Kashif Khan had called him on July 28 and had demanded that he pay them Rs500,000 protection money. He said that he had filed a complaint with the Gulgasht police and an FIR was registered in this regard. “On July 29, five men broke into the club late at night and beat me up,” Haider said. They vandalised the club, located at Business City Plaza, Bosan Road, and fired shots. Later Ali and Khan called him and threatened him with dire consequences if he did not pay them the money. Haider said he had CCTV footage to corroborate his claims.

Hussain said that he had requested the police to register an FIR under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act. “The men had fired shots in a commercial and heavily populated area… I think that qualifies as terrorism.” The police, however, did not add the section. Hussain said the police had also not invoked Section 384 of the Pakistan Penal Code (extortion) to the FIR. He said the police had taken Ali and Khan into custody but they had obtained bail.

When contacted, the Gulgasht police explained that Section 384 and Section 7 of the ATA had been omitted by mistake. They said they would summon the suspects and the complainant to the police station soon and get to the bottom of the matter.  

Published in The Express Tribune, August 3^rd, 2016.