Police raid on wedding ceremony goes sideways

Wedding guests confront officer over his authority to conduct such a raid


Iftikhar Chaudhry May 03, 2019
PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE

ISLAMABAD: A raid on a house where a wedding was underway by a police patrol officer quickly turned into a row between police and the wedding party.

Iftikhar Chaudhry, the patrolling officer from the Secretariat police station, had raided a house in the Bari Imam Colony claiming that he had received a tip-off that shots had been fired into the air from the house.

One of the guests, Nawazish, protested the police officer’s attempt to trespass and an argument ensued between the two. The officer called for backup and forced the guest into the back of a police van, threatening to take him to the police station and ‘teach him a lesson’. But the situation grew tense after other guests stepped in. Someone also allegedly slapped the officer and later forced him to sit in a corner for a brief period.

The row, however, de-escalated after the neighbours intervened.

Witnesses claimed that the police officer was allegedly attempting to extort the house owners into paying a bribe for not disturbing the wedding. Instead, the officer was beaten up by the guests.

They added that the police have arrested three guests for allegedly damaging a car and for being intoxicated and booked them for possession of homemade liquor. They added that the police have called them to the precinct to settle the matter.

Eve teasers beaten up

A group of eve-teasers harassed and thrashed some young female students in the Lake View Park on Thursday.

Ghulam Murtaza told the Secretariat police that he had brought seven young students on an educational visit to the park where seven suspects started teasing the girls.

When the students rebuffed their advances, the suspects started abusing the girls. They then started kicking, slapping and dragging the girls by their hair.

As a result, the screams from the girls filled the park and soon a large crowd gathered who rescued the girls.

They caught hold of the suspects, beat them up and later handed them over to the police.

The police have registered a case against the suspects. They, however only arrested two of the suspects but others were allowed to go home after keeping them in the precinct for several hours.

Number plates stolen

In a strange case, closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in Rawalpindi have uncovered the unusual theft of number plates allotted to cars. However, the Sadiqabad police demonstrated lethargy in taking action and only registered a case when the SHO intervened.

The CCTV footage shows two suspects driving a white saloon car, who stop behind a smaller, parked car owned by N* and then take its computerized number plate off before fleeing.

The car owner said that he made several trips to the police station to lodge a complaint against the theft but the police continued to display their routine lethargy despite the availability of the footage. Later, the police registered a complaint about a missing number plate instead of theft. The FIR, though, came after the precinct’s station house officer (SHO) intervened.

The police officers allegedly told the complaints that it will create problems for them if they registered a complaint about theft.

Meanwhile, the complainants were worried that their stolen number plate could be misused and urged the police to take timely action.

WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM SALEH MUGHAL IN RAWALPINDI 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 3rd, 2019.

COMMENTS

Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ