Islamabad police held dozens in raid on dance party

ISLAMABAD: Police have arrested at least 50 men and women who were participating in a dance party at a hotel in Sector G-5 on Sunday. Officials said that the raid had been conducted on the orders of Assistant Commissioner Captain Retired Shoaib Ali in the early hours of Sunday.

Officials said that a large number of men and women were found dancing and playing music on loudspeakers while smoking. Police rounded up at least 34 men and 16 women from the hotel and booked them for ‘obscene acts and songs’, and for violating the amplifier and the tobacco control laws.



However, a magistrate released all the suspects on bail a few hours later. The hotel’s owner and manager have also been booked for abetment. The hotel, which the police raided, is built on a spot reserved for the Supreme Court Bar Association.

Earlier in May this year, a dance party in Lahore was brought to a grinding halt on the call of a religious cleric over the weekend. Sunni Tehrik Lahore President Maulana Mujahid Abdul Rasool threatened police to either stop a party at Sozo Water Park immediately or face the music. Subsequently, the police and district administration ordered organisers to pack up and leave the venue right away, despite the fact that organisers had obtained the approval of the deputy commissioner.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3^rd, 2017.