Chasing kite flyers: Man dies of heart attack during police raid

Sadiqabad SHO among five officials booked, arrested

RAWALPINDI: A man died of a heart attack in Rawalpindi when policemen barged into his home while pursuing kite flyers on Friday. The man’s family though claimed that police had tortured the man, leading to his death.

Sadiqabad police later booked five of their colleagues for violating the sanctity of a home, trespassing and misbehaving with the family during a raid, officials said on Saturday.

As part of its ongoing crackdown against kite flyers and sellers, as many as five police officials had raided a house in Islamnagar Mohala in Dhoke Kaku Shah on Friday to arrest two  people who had been seen flying a kite from the house’s roof. As a police team, led by the Sadiqabad police station SHO Raja Tahir, stormed the house, a police constable allegedly pushed 50-year-old Muhammad Aslam who suffered a heart attack.

He was rushed to the nearby Benazir Bhutto Hospital where doctors pronounced him  dead. Aslam’s son Israr Danish later claimed in his complaint that the police team had allegedly misbehaved with his family and had tortured his father which caused him to suffer a cardiac arrest resulting in his death. He further accused the police officials of violating the sanctity of his home.

Police accepted Danish’s application late on Friday and lodged a case against the five officials under section 452 of the Pakistan Penal Code (trespassing into a house after preparing to hurt, assault or wrongfully restrain someone). The code also covers “putting any person in fear of hurt, or of assault, or of wrongful restraint”, prescribing a maximum sentence of seven years in prison and a fine.

Those booked included Tahir and Raja Haseeb and three unidentified policemen. A police officer told The Express Tribune that the five cops had been taken into custody while City Police Officer Israr Ahmed Khan Abbasi was investigating the matter himself. The CPO also suspended Tahir late on Friday.

Protests

After Aslam died of a heart attack, locals gathered at Chandni Chowk on Friday evening on the busy Murree Road and blocked it for traffic. They also blocked the metro bus track, forcing the administration to suspend the bus service temporarily.

Meanwhile, Aslam’s funeral prayers were offered at Rawal Chowk on Saturday. Following the funeral, Dhoke Kaku Shah residents staged another demonstration against the police.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 5^th, 2017.