Behind bars: Women jailed for beating policemen say he was kicked by a cow

SHO claims that they attacked him with wooden sticks, but relative says he was kicked by a cow.

SUKKUR: An anti-terrorism court sent six women to Central Jail II for seven days of judicial remand for beating a policeman.

They were brought before the court on Monday for attacking the three officers in Raees Mithal Chachar village on October 1, Saturday.

One of their relatives said, however, that the SHO was kicked by a cow. Mohammad Bachal Chachar told The Express Tribune that the SHO was trying to untie the rope around a cow’s neck when the animal kicked him. “The women hit the policemen when they went overboard and became quite rude,” he said. “The men also hit two women with their batons and broke their arms.” He added that the women were under treatment in a private hospital because the police had refused to issue them a letter for treatment at a government hospital.

The relative added that the police took away 40 buffaloes, cows and nine goats from the villagers and had destroyed three houses using armored personnel carriers.

Ubauro SHO Sibghatullah Jatoi has denied these allegations. He added that the police had only raided the village to arrest suspects. While talking to The Express Tribune, he said that he had not been hit by a cow. “I am not a child, so how could a cow kick me? The women attacked me with sticks,” he said. Ubauro DSP Ghulam Hussain Dahiri was not available for comment. Advocate Abdul Majeed Memon represented the women and judge Sikandar Ali Bhutto heard the case.

Case history

On Saturday the police, including SHO Jatoi raided the village to make arrests in a murder case. They conducted a door-to-door search and allegedly misbehaved with women.  Sources claim that after the authorities had arrested some men and were leaving the village, six women attacked them with wooden sticks. Three policemen, including the SHO and ASI Qazi Sajjad, were injured. After the men were taken to a hospital, the police conducted another search and arrested 15 people, including six women. They registered FIR No. 352/2011 under the anti-terrorism act against them.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2011.