Lawyers thrash policemen

Lawyers, police blame each other for starting scuffle.

LAHORE:

A station house officer (SHO) and a constable were beaten up by some 30 lawyers on the Sessions Court premises on Friday apparently for registering an FIR against a lawyer four days ago. However, the lawyers said that the ‘pushing and the shoving’ was initiated by the policemen.

Bar sources said the policemen were dragged into a bar room and thrashed. They left the bar room with their uniforms torn and their bodies bruised. The lawyers involved remained unharmed.   On Tuesday Samanabad SHO Safdar Sajjad had arrested Advocate Shahbaz Gujjar, a lawyer, for being inebriated, shouting in the street and pointing a gun at some passers-by.

On Friday, Advocate Gujjar and a group of lawyers attacked the SHO and Constable Nazim Ali in the Sessions Court. The SHO said that some lawyers slapped him and dragged him  and Ali into a bar room. “They forced us to sign blank sheets of paper. When we refused, they beat us up for an hour,” he said.

The rowdy lawyers left when DSP Shakeel Khokhar of the Islampura police station arrived at the court. The injured men were then taken to the DSP’s office. DSP Khokhar told The Express Tribune that the two men had been in the bar room when he reached the court. He said appropriate action would be initiated after the report if their medical examination.

Advocate Gujjar contested the account. He said that the SHO and the constable had stolen Rs500,000 from his car a few days ago. When he filed a complaint against the two, Gujjar said, the SHO kept him in illegal detention and filed a false FIR against him.

On Friday, he said, the SHO slapped a lawyer which led to a brawl. He said that the lawyers did not tear the policemen’s uniforms.

District and Sessions Judge Mujahid Mustaqeem Ahmed later convened a meeting at his chamber to discuss the incident and identify the reasons. However, the SSP (Operations) and other relevant officers were not available. The meeting was then adjourned till Saturday.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2012.