Law enforcement: Town officer shot during cattle farm raid
Official in intensive care after second shooting in eviction drive in three days.
LAHORE:
An Allama Iqbal Town officer is in intensive care after being shot twice while conducting a raid on an illegal cattle farm in Sabzazar on Thursday.
Two colleagues of the officer and a child bystander also received minor injuries when gunmen opened fire on the raiding team. Doctors at Mian Munshi Hospital operated on Ashfaq Bhatti to remove bullets from his neck and shoulder. The surgery was said to be a success, but he was still in intensive care.
The shooting follows another incident in Allama Iqbal Town on Tuesday, when gunmen raided a cattle pound and released animals that had been confiscated earlier in the day. No one was injured.
City government officials have been trying to remove all illegal cattle farms from the city limits for three weeks, a drive which gained further impetus because of the renewed focus on hygiene in the wake of the dengue outbreak.
District Officer (Environment) Tariq Zaman told The Express Tribune that the drive had been suspended for a day after the attack on Bhatti but would resume “with full force” on Friday morning. He said that a case had been registered against the attackers and they had been arrested.
He said that the recent incidents indicated how far the cattle farming business in the city was controlled by violent gangs and the difficulty of forcing them to move out of the city. “We are behind our staff and will protect them from such mafias,” he added.
Zaman said that previously, the city government could rely on a force of 125 constables with the superintendent of police (Town Hall) to provide security for officials in such campaigns. Now, he said, the SP was left with four constables, so the officials had to get help directly from police stations.
Town officials complained that getting the police to cooperate with them was difficult. An Allama Iqbal Town official said that there were no constables accompanying the raiding team that was shot at. He said that the police often refused to escort them.
Allama Iqbal Town Officer (Regulations) Rana Ashraf said that the raiding team had sought a police escort for Tuesday’s shooting, which occurred in Jhuggian Nagra in Nawakot police jurisdiction, but not a single constable had been sent. He said they were lucky no one was injured in the shooting two days ago. He said in both shootings, town officials had themselves caught the shooters and handed them to the police.
Another official said that the areas being raided were large and in the jurisdictions of more than one station. But policemen from one station were reluctant to cross into another’s territory, so the logistics of arranging for police escorts was another headache for local government officials.
He said that officials were under heavy pressure to get the job done from higher-ups, who were under similar pressure from the chief minister. “Police force or not, we have to operate as the chief minister is directly monitoring the campaign,” he said.
Most remaining cattle farms in the city are in Allama Iqbal Town and Ravi Town.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 30th, 2011.
An Allama Iqbal Town officer is in intensive care after being shot twice while conducting a raid on an illegal cattle farm in Sabzazar on Thursday.
Two colleagues of the officer and a child bystander also received minor injuries when gunmen opened fire on the raiding team. Doctors at Mian Munshi Hospital operated on Ashfaq Bhatti to remove bullets from his neck and shoulder. The surgery was said to be a success, but he was still in intensive care.
The shooting follows another incident in Allama Iqbal Town on Tuesday, when gunmen raided a cattle pound and released animals that had been confiscated earlier in the day. No one was injured.
City government officials have been trying to remove all illegal cattle farms from the city limits for three weeks, a drive which gained further impetus because of the renewed focus on hygiene in the wake of the dengue outbreak.
District Officer (Environment) Tariq Zaman told The Express Tribune that the drive had been suspended for a day after the attack on Bhatti but would resume “with full force” on Friday morning. He said that a case had been registered against the attackers and they had been arrested.
He said that the recent incidents indicated how far the cattle farming business in the city was controlled by violent gangs and the difficulty of forcing them to move out of the city. “We are behind our staff and will protect them from such mafias,” he added.
Zaman said that previously, the city government could rely on a force of 125 constables with the superintendent of police (Town Hall) to provide security for officials in such campaigns. Now, he said, the SP was left with four constables, so the officials had to get help directly from police stations.
Town officials complained that getting the police to cooperate with them was difficult. An Allama Iqbal Town official said that there were no constables accompanying the raiding team that was shot at. He said that the police often refused to escort them.
Allama Iqbal Town Officer (Regulations) Rana Ashraf said that the raiding team had sought a police escort for Tuesday’s shooting, which occurred in Jhuggian Nagra in Nawakot police jurisdiction, but not a single constable had been sent. He said they were lucky no one was injured in the shooting two days ago. He said in both shootings, town officials had themselves caught the shooters and handed them to the police.
Another official said that the areas being raided were large and in the jurisdictions of more than one station. But policemen from one station were reluctant to cross into another’s territory, so the logistics of arranging for police escorts was another headache for local government officials.
He said that officials were under heavy pressure to get the job done from higher-ups, who were under similar pressure from the chief minister. “Police force or not, we have to operate as the chief minister is directly monitoring the campaign,” he said.
Most remaining cattle farms in the city are in Allama Iqbal Town and Ravi Town.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 30th, 2011.