Police told to hold SHO’s salary till accused cops arrested

Court against issues notice to policemen on petition against staged encounter.

LAHORE:

An additional district and sessions judge on Saturday directed the capital city police officer (CCPO) to withhold the salary of the Kot Lakhpat station house officer (SHO) until he complies with orders to produce in court 50 policemen accused of involvement in a staged encounter in which two men were murdered.

Judge Muhammad Javaidul Hassan Chishti also issued his fourth summons to a Sheikhupura deputy superintendent of police, four Sheikhupura SHOs and the Khanqah Dogran SHO, six sub inspectors, seven constables and three others and again issued show cause notice to the Kot Lakhpat SHO to ensure his presence in the court on November 19.

The complainant, Chungi Amar Sidhu resident Kahkashan Begum, had filed a private complaint against the police officials listed above and contended that they and others had abducted her brothers Sabir and Abrar, held them for ransom, murdered them, and then tried to portray them as criminals who had been killed in a shootout.

She told the court that some 50 policemen cordoned off her residence at 2am on April 13, 2009, and took away Sabir and Abrar as well as Ayesha Bibi and Farzana Bibi. They also allegedly took mobile phones, jewellery, a wristwatch and Rs30,000 in cash. She said that Ayesha and Farzana were later released and they revealed that Sabir and Abrar had been taken to Khanqah Dogran. Kahkashan’s relative Fauzia Bibi filed a petition in the Lahore High Court, which directed the Kot Lakhpat SHO to register a case against the police officials.

Kahkashan said that she and her family then got a ransom demand of Rs1 million from the cops for the return of her brothers, but they could not pay. The police then killed her brothers on April 25, she said, and tried to make it look as if they had been killed in an encounter, registering a case at Khanqah Dogran police station. She said an anti-terrorism court later declared the encounter a fake. She asked the court to register a case against the 50 police officials who had been involved in the abduction and killing of her brothers.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2011.