Case registered after attack on Qasim Suri

15-20 stick-wielding men attacked ex-deputy speaker and his guests around midnight

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad police registered a case at Kohsar police station after former deputy speaker and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Qasim Suri, along with guests, including Senator Ejaz Chaudhry, was attacked by unknown individuals at Kohsar Market on Friday.

In a First Information Report (FIR) registered at the police station, Suri stated that he along with some companions, including Adeel Mirza and Khalid Bhatti, was sitting at a restaurant in Kohsar Market for Sehri when a group of 15-20 people, who reportedly arrived in three vehicles, approached them.

The report added that the attackers raised slogans against the former ruling party before attacking the PTI leaders with sticks. Suri said that the attackers were threatening that "no one would be able to leave the eatery alive". The incident spread fear among the people sitting at the restaurant, added Suri.

ن لیگی غنڈوں نے مجھ پر اور میرے سحری کے لیے آئے ہوئے مہمانوں پر اسلام آباد کے مقامی ریسٹورنٹ پر ابھی ابھی حملہ کرنے کی کوشش کی اور مہمانوں سے بدتمیزی کی نون لیگی غنڈوں کو ریسٹورنٹ میں آئی ہوئی فیملیز اور ویٹرز نے مار مار کر بھگادیا۔ امپورٹڈ حکومت اب ان اوچھے ہتھکنڈوں پر آ گئی ہے۔

— Qasim Khan Suri (@QasimKhanSuri) April 28, 2022

Suri said that one of his companies, Dr Arif Aziz, was injured on his right eye while Bhatti too was injured on his right eye and leg. The former deputy speaker called for legal action against the attackers, adding that Mirza and Bhatti could identify them if the authorities presented them before them.

Around 1:30 am on Friday, Suri had alleged in a tweet that "hooligans belonging to the ruling PML-N (Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz)" tried to attack him and his guests at Sehri time. "The N-League's hooligans were forced to flee after getting beaten up by the families and the staff of the eatery," he said, accusing the government of "resorting to foul play".

The police registered a case under Sections 148 (rioting while armed with deadly weapon), 149 (punishment for all members of an unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) but refrained from nominating anyone in the FIR.

The police have also assured that the suspects would be arrested soon as they were tracing the attackers through Safe City cameras in the federal capital.

Senator Chaudhry has alleged that the suspects were “henchmen” of Jamhoori Watan Party’s (JWP) Shahzain Bugti and the attack was in response to the incident of people shouting slogans against ministers during their visit to the Prophet’s (PBUH) Mosque in Madina.