Police brutality: Folk singer Afshan Zaibi speaks up

Says will drag SHO to court for torture, demanding bribe and snatching cash

HARIPUR: Renowned folk singer Afshan Zaibi has said that she will approach the courts regarding police brutality she and her team suffered in Jhelum.

“Jhelum Civil Lines SHO Asim physically tortured me and my team for not paying the bribe he had demanded,” she told a press conference on her return to Haripur from Jhelum, where she and her team were booked under the Amplifier Act three days ago, only to be released on court orders.

Zaibi, who is also the PTI Haripur district women wing’s  vice president, said the Punjab police also forcibly confiscated their music equipment, money and valuables. “We used to fear robbers, but now we are also scared of Punjab police” Zaibi said.

In her press conference held at Haripur Press Club, Zaibi appealed to Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif, IG Police Capt (Retd) Arif Nawaz and Lahore High Court Chief Justice Mansoor Ali Shah to take notice of the injustice they had suffered in their province.



“The police should return Rs200,000 confiscated by the SHO of Jhelum Civil Line police station,” she said.

Recalling the horror, Zaibi said she and her troupe were treated like criminals. “Six  police mobiles full of cops raided the function where we were performing, they slapped and punched us, dragged us like we were some sort of criminals. We are not terrorists, we are just artistes and artistes are peaceful people,” she said.

Maybe, the local leader of PTI said, she was tortured for her political affiliations and the songs she had sung for her party.

Zaibi said that she would move court against Civil Lines SHO Asim who took her into custody for not paying him bribe and also registered an FIR against her and 15 members of her team.

“I have been around the length and breadth of the country with my troupe, but have never been harassed by the police,” she said. “Artistes are never subjected to torture in other provinces of the country and they are not forced to pay bribes to the police,” she said, adding that she too now believes based on her personal experience that Punjab police is the worst of all police in the whole of Pakistan.

She accused Punjab police of harassing and assaulting several artistes and vowed to voice and act against the highhandedness.

She said that the police tortured them even when they had been granted the permission for the show. “We showed them the permit for the show but they still assaulted us,” Zaibi said.

She said that the intrigue is that none of the show organisers were mentioned in the FIR Jhelum police filed against her. “Instead the police helped them flee the scene,” she said. 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2018.