Three rural zone officials suspended

DSP, SHO, duty officer face charges of colluding with land mafia

ISLAMABAD:

The operations chief of the capital police has suspended three officials over showing negligence in the investigation of a murder case.

Islamabad Police Operations DIG Afzal Ahmad Kausar has suspended three police officials of the rural zone over alleged negligence following a firing incident in the remits of Koral police station on Monday.

Operations DIG sacked Koral DSP Ulfat Arif, Koral police station SHO Shamsul Akbar, and the duty officer for deliberately avoiding action against the suspect who killed a man and injured two with firing in a land-grabbing bid.

Golra police station SHO Sub-Inspector Shaukat Abbasi has been deployed as the new SHO of Koral police station.

The suspended policemen face the allegation of supporting the alleged land grabbers, instead of arresting them.

Sources revealed that an inquiry has been launched into the alleged grant of plots to 233 officers of the federal police by the Ghauri Town management. These officers were posted in the rural zone at different times and took plots in return for turning a blind to the actions of the land mafia.

Koral DSP Qasim Niazi was earlier removed from his post on the complaint of Ghauri Town Green Director Land Imran Aslam for allegedly blackmailing him and framing him in wrong cases on refusal to give him a plot.

After which the sacked Koral SHO Shamsul Akbar and DSP Arif were posted in Koral with special assignments.

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However, they allegedly did not try to stop the firing due to the alleged collusion with unscrupulous elements. The policemen did not take immediate action owing to which the armed suspects managed to flee.

Further, the duty officer also reached the hospital late on which the Operations DIG has now suspended the new team that was assigned special tasks.

Meanwhile, sources said that the DIG has directed a secret inquiry based on the revelations of the Ghauri Town director that police officials took plots from him.

Upon completion of the investigation, strict departmental action will be taken against the involved police officers and personnel.

It should be noted that a few weeks ago, the Rural SP was replaced by Rana Abdul Wahab.

Besides this, a comprehensive report has been sought from the investigating officers (IOs) on the removal of the name ex-owner of Ghauri Town Chaudhry Abdul Rehman from the fourth schedule even though cases were registered against him in different police stations under Anti-Terrorism Act.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2021.