Six injured as police baton charge protestors
Police officer in riot gear stand guard outside a Radio Pakistan office building after it was set afire by the supporters of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan during a protest against his arrest, in Peshawar, Pakistan, May 11, 2023. PHOTO: REUTERS
The Kashmore-Kandhkot district police resorted to baton charge to disperse protestors who staged a sit-in against kidnappings and kutcha area dacoits as a result six protestors sustained injuries.
However, SSP Amjad Shaikh has denied any police action against the protestors and blamed that the participants of the sit-in and some suspicious elements attacked the police force.
Some videos, shared on social media, show a few men bleeding from their heads and necks as dozens of charged men throw stones at policemen and using abusive language against the law enforcers. Later, the policemen were seen escaping from the scene in their van. The faces of the attackers were covered and they tried to uproot the tent under which the protesters were sitting. The tent was pitched up again after the attack was foiled.
The protesters, led by advocate Abdul Ghani Bijarani, accused the police for infiltrating their ranks with the help of suspicious men in civil dress. One of the attackers carrying a knife in his hand has been caught in the video recordings.
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"We all know who started the attack. Why are the police not arresting the attackers?" questioned Bijarani while talking to the local media. The alleged baton charge sparked unrest and more protests in other parts of the province, bringing volleys of condemnation for the police.
The new sit-in protest, organised by Bijarani, started on Wednesday after the Hindu Panchayat ended their sit-in after four days. The markets in the district remained closed for five days on the call of the Panchayat.
The SSP claimed that the police had shown progress by recovering three of the kidnapped persons, succeeding in persuading Panchayat to end the protest.
Shaikh earlier reached out to the protesters and tried to convince them to call off the protest. However, Bijarani and others insisted that they will not leave until all the kidnapped persons and not just a few of them are recovered.
"The police connive with the dacoits in the kidnappings," alleged Molvi Jamaluddin Augahi, while speaking at the protest camp. "If the police get some of the kidnapped persons released under pressure of the protests, the kidnappers will abduct them again or others in the coming days."
The protests erupted in Hyderabad, Nawabshah, Ghotki, Umerkot, Thatta, Larkana, Kambar and other districts in reaction to the alleged police assault.
Separately, a woman was killed and a cop, Naek Muhammad, was injured in an exchange of fire between the police and the dacoits in Gehalpur kutcha area on Wednesday evening in Kashmore-Kandhkot. The operation, the police said, was conducted to recover abductees.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 7th, 2023.