Family, friends and neighbours of the victims of the New Charkra firing incident staged a sit-in at Chuhar Chowk on Peshawar Road demanding insertion of terrorism clauses in the FIR against the suspects.
Harassing women has been deemed as such an unalienable right by some people that four suspects shot dead a 65-year old man, injured three people including two women to avenge the insult of being stopped from teasing a woman.
The protesters set tires on fire and blocked Peshawar Road for almost two hours. They chanted slogans against Pothohar SP Syed Ali, Cantt DSP, and Naseerabad police station SHO. The closure of Peshawar Road caused a severe traffic jam which lasted hours.
SP Syed Ali reached the spot with other senior police officers and held talks with the protestors. SP Ali assured the demonstrators that their demand to include a terrorism clause in the FIR would be met within 48 hours.
The protesters warned that they would take to the roads again in a more intense manner if their demands were not fulfilled in the given time.
According to Naseerabad police, on Friday some young men harassed a woman who was on her way home. The woman confronted the hoodlums and people nearby also told them to go away and stop harassing women.
Infuriated, the four suspects stalked the woman and then barged into her house and started beating everyone inside. The neighbours hearing the hue and cry came rushing to the rescue of the family, but the suspects pulled out pistols and opened indiscriminate fire. By the time the gunshots stopped, Muhammad Elias, Azhar, Khaleda Bibi and Azhra Bibi were lying injured on the floor.
The rest of the people in the impoverished locality cowered in their homes as shots rang and the suspects left unchallenged. The Rescue 1122 responding to the distress call shifted the four injured to hospital, but Elias died on the way.
A case was registered at the Naseerabad police station against the suspects, but the relatives of the victims claimed that the police were siding with the offenders by deliberately excluding sections of terrorism in the case.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 14th, 2021.
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