PTI leader sparks social media outrage after videos show him humiliating police

Police file FIR against Nawab Zaid Talpur and five others including his son, who was later arrested

HYDERABAD: A Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader drew the ire of social media users after video clips made on Tuesday showed him lambasting police for arresting one his men and humiliating an SHO.

In one clip, landlord Nawab Zaid Talpur, accompanied by his son Nawab Hassan Talpur, is seen sitting on the chair of the Umerkot police station SHO Tassawur Jatt, admonishing him for rounding up his supporter.

Zaid Talpur (drunk) brother in law of Liaquat Jatoi #PTI at Kunri Police Station Umar Kot, occupies SHO's seat & asks SHO to sit on ground. pic.twitter.com/8bhaOegXp4

— Majid Agha (@Majid_Agha) May 2, 2017

Zaid, an Umerkot-based leader of the PTI, is a nephew of Pakistan People's Party MNA Nawab Yousuf Talpur and a cousin of the Sindh MPA Taimur Talpur. The Talpur family is also related to PPP Co-Chairman Asif Zardari.



On Wednesday, the police booked Zaid, his son and four other men who accompanied them to the police station under sections 147, 148, 149, 150, 353 and 504 of the Pakistan Penal Code, offences that carry prison terms of up to two years.

They also arrested Zaid's son, Hassan. The police said Zaid was still at large but his family claimed that he too had been rounded up.

"They attacked the police station, abused policemen, grabbed my hands and dragged me," the SHO told reporters.

The SHO added that he kept asking Zaid to get up from his seat but the latter insisted that he would not until the policemen sat elsewhere and listened to him.

Mir Zaid Talpur, PTI leader of Kunri Distt Umarkot,Sindh,Threating POLICE officials in front of hundreds of people, State must take action pic.twitter.com/gxPDclvLLj

— Javed Nayab Laghari (@JavedNLaghari) May 2, 2017

Zaid was previously reported as saying that he had visited the police station to talk to the police about a false case registered against a PTI activist at the behest of a PPP leader. He claimed that the SHO had misbehaved with him and also locked him up for a few hours.



PTI leader Haleem Adil Shaikh, while talking to The Express Tribune, condemned Zaid's actions. "We believe what he [Zaid] did was wrong," he said. But in the same breath, he accused the police of thrashing and humiliating Zaid's son, Hassan, after arresting him.
"What happened yesterday was not right. But what happened today [the alleged torture of Hassan in detention] is also wrong," he added.
Shaikh said Zaid's family had claimed that he had also been arrested, but the police denied this.