Expats harassed: Police start proceedings against ‘touchy’ cops

Federal Ombudsman takes notice of police officers who misbehaved with visiting family

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Police have started departmental proceedings against two of its own after they were arrested for robbing and harassing a visiting expat family at a checkpoint earlier this month.

Sections of ‘obscene acts’ and ‘receiving stolen property’ have also been added to the charge sheet against constables Abdul Wadood and Rana Mudassir.

The police said this in their compliance report which was submitted to the Federal Ombudsman Secretariat’s Grievance Commissioner for Overseas Pakistanis.

On November 13, a Pakistani-American family visiting the country after 16 years was allegedly looted, illegally detained, and its male members sexually harassed at a police checkpoint in Islamabad.

Later, the family approached the Secretariat Police Station and lodged a complaint against the officials. The police said footage from nearby CCTV cameras confirmed that the extortion and harassment had taken place.

The Overseas Pakistanis commissioner had sent a clipping of the story, first published in The Express Tribune, to the inspector general of the Islamabad Police and directed him to submit a report.

The police, in their reply, said that departmental action had been initiated against both suspects and they had been suspended with effect from November 15 after they had been arrested from Aabpara on the same day.

“During interrogation, both accused confessed to the commission of the offences,” reads the police report. Further, the $100, which the two policemen had taken from the family, were also recovered from the suspects.

Both officials are currently in jail on judicial remand.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26^th, 2016.