Public service: Protests after lawbreaking MPA, cronies thrash traffic cop

Car of the PML-N member of the K-P assembly was being lifted from a no parking area; policeman in hospital.

ABBOTABAD:

People staged a protest on Sunday against the thrashing of a policeman by a PML-N MPA and demanded the registration of a criminal case against him.

The protesters blocked Mansehra Road near Fawara Chowk and lit tyres on fire. The protesters also included some off-duty policemen who raised slogans against the MPA for beating a traffic officer.

Aurangzeb Khan Nalotha, the MPA from PF-47 Abbottabad, had parked his Mitsubishi Pajero (registration No PF-47) in a no-parking zone in Havelian Bazaar on Saturday when a traffic officer Head Constable Gul Khitab came and ordered a forklift operator to remove the vehicle.

In the meanwhile, the MPA appeared from a nearby street and slapped the police official, while his guards also hurled expletives at Khitab before beating him with the butts of their AK-47s.

Later, Headquarter Superintendent Ali Zia and DSP Shah Nazar Khan reached their and took the MPA and the traffic personnel to Havelian Police Station, where the traffic official provided a written statement accusing the MPA and his guards of thrashing him.  He also demanded the registration of an FIR against Nalotha.

The matter was purportedly ‘resolved’ after the MPA apologised to the policeman, however, reports suggest that high-ups from the police department reportedly forced the traffic official to patch up.

The traffic officer was admitted in District Headquarter Hospital Abbottabad, complaining of severe body pains. Meanwhile, on Sunday afternoon some PML-Q activists staged a protest in Abbottabad where they lit fires and blocked Mansehra Road for about an hour and a half.

Havelian DSP Shah Nazar Khan confirmed that the thrashing incident took place and that Gul Khitab was admitted to hospital, while adding that an inquiry against the MPA was underway and that a case would be registered after Khitab’s medical report became available.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2011.