A group of lawyers seized three constables at the Sessions Court and then turned them over to Islampura police station on Wednesday, with the two sides giving contrasting accounts of how the situation came about.
The policemen, who are brothers, said that they had been captured, detained and beaten by some 40 lawyers led by a man who had a personal grudge against them.
The head of the group of lawyers filed a complaint with the police stating that the three cops had tried to mug him, while the Lahore Bar Association said that the lawyers had only stopped the policemen from beating up some of their colleagues.
Constable Mehran Ahmed, who is with the Elite Force in Faisalabad, and Constables Amir Ahmed and Rizwan Ahmed, who are with Jaranwala police station, had been summoned by Additional District and Sessions Judge Anjum Zia on Wednesday for a bail hearing, in a case where they were accused by Advocate Raoof Ahmed Thakur of sending him death threats.
Amir told The Express Tribune that he had been engaged to Thakur’s sister a few months ago, but the engagement ended because of a dispute between the families. He said that Thakur had then registered a false complaint against him, claiming the policeman had sent him a death threat via text message on his mobile phone. He said that Thakur had also threatened to beat him up when he came to court for proceedings.
On Wednesday, the court granted them bail, after which they went and sat in a lawyer’s chambers. “We saw a few lawyers approach but were not worried. Then five more came and they sat near us, and ten more were walking towards us,” Amir said. The brothers, sensing what was coming, tried to flee but were captured, he said.
Amir said that they were then taken to the bar room, held there for an hour and beaten up. He claimed that the captors included members of the Lahore Bar Association. They were later handed over to Islampura police.
Thakur submitted an application to the Islampura police station house officer stating that the three brothers, armed with pistols, and 10 other men armed with clubs had held him up at the Baba Ground and tried to deprive him of his mobile phone and Rs50,000 in cash, but he had been saved and the villains captured by lawyers who were standing near by. No FIR was registered on the complaint.
Islampura DSP Shakeel Ahmed Khokhar said that the police would investigate and take action against any lawyers that had participated in the beating of the constables. “I have been saying for a long time that police officials are not safe in courts,” he said.
LBA president Shehzad Hassan Shaikh said the cops had been sitting in Malik Rafique’s chambers and had beaten up Rafique’s associates and other advocates. They had then been overpowered and handed over to the police.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 21st, 2011.
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