Buffalo bail: refusing to cow down before the cops

GUJRANWALA:

Police officials recently seized 55 buffaloes from a man who was unable to pay off a loan. According to locals, the man’s son was seen dragging three buffaloes and a calf into the police station on Monday afternoon.

“Apparently he was fed up of being harassed about paying off the loan and eventually he brought the buffaloes into the police station and placed the calf on the SHO’s desk,” said a villager who witnessed the incident Saleem.

Dhenger Wali resident 65-year-old Haji Boota said that his son, Mustafa, had taken a hefty loan from a colleague several months ago. On Monday, after the lender, Shakeel had involved the police, Boota’s son let the police come and take 55 buffaloes belonging to the family as payment for the loan.

“I disinherited my son and I went to the police to return my herd of cattle. They refused and told me that my family still owed them ‘interest’,” said Boota.

“It was my mistake. I should never have gotten involved with Shakeel’s business but I wanted to purchase some land and I didn’t have the money. He offered me the amount and I bought the land,” Mustafa said. “I sold my fathers herd when Shakeel began threatening me. He had relatives in the police and they told me they would arrest me so I let them come and take the animals when my father was out of town,” he added.

Shakeel and a team of police officials entered Boota’s compound on Sunday and seized 55 buffaloes. “As far as I am concerned these animals are mine in payment for the loan and I can do what I want with them so I took them to the cattle market,” Shakeel said. “Shakeel later came and told me that he still hadn’t recovered the full amount of the loan and that I needed to pay him ‘interest’ for the time I had taken to pay off the loan,” Mustafa said.

Mustafa said that he became enraged because he had also been disinherited by his father over the incident. “I have lost my family over this and they were still not satisfied,” he said, adding that police Shakeel had called him from the police station and made him speak to SHO Cantt Amir Abbas. “They told me that if I didn’t pay up I would be in lock up by the end of the week,” he added.

On Monday, Mustafa took three remaining cows and a calf into the Dhenger Wali police chowki and placed the calf on the police official’s desk. “He was ranting and raving but police officials eventually let him go. Many of the people found the incident amusing and the police officials just laughed and accepted the ‘payment’,” said a police office clerk Tariq.

Haji Boota said that he would press charges against his son for payment of the animals he had lost.

SHO Abbas said that Mustafa was a fraud and the buffaloes had originally belonged to Shakeel. “Shakeel only wanted him to give back what Mustafa had taken from him,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18^th, 2011.