‘Manhandled’: Hundreds protest against police’s high-handedness

The two victims demand legal action against the policemen, threaten to move court.

HARIPUR:

Over a hundred villagers surrounded the local police station in Ghazi tehsil on Thursday evening and protested against police’s manhandling of two people.

Nasrum Minallah, owner of a snooker club at Khalo village of Ghazi tehsil, said that he had an argument with Akhtar Zaman, resident of Peshawar, over the payment of a snooker game on Thursday. Zaman went to the police.

However, after few hours the matter was resolved through a jirga and they went to the police station to get the charges dropped, Minallah added.

Assistant Sub-inspector Shafiqur Rehman, however, refused to accept the statement and said the police will continue to investigate the matter.

The two men argued that the police had not registered an FIR and they had struck a compromise, so they should drop the case.

This, Minallah said, enraged the police officials at the station. They “pounced on us and beat us blue and black, tearing off our clothes”. The police detained the two and kicked out their friends who had accompanied them to furnish their sureties, Minallah added.

When their families found out, they gathered over a hundred villagers and surrounded the police station. Former MPA Faisal Zaman led the protesters. When the situation was about to go out of control, ASP Wahid Mehmood intervened and assured legal action against the police personnel who manhandled the two. He refused to release the two, however, and forwarded their case to a local court.

The two suspects were granted bail by the court on Friday. They have demanded action against the concerned police officials and have threatened to go to court.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th, 2012.