5 held for assault, damaging public property

Body of a man killed in hit-and-run exhumed, handed over to family.

SARGODHA:

Five people were arrested for assault and damaging public property during a demonstration on Khushab Road on Tuesday.

The FIRs registered with Factory Area police accused more than 100 people, of which five were identified, of injuring two policemen and vandalising public property.

The suspects were among dozens of residents of Chak 127 South who were protesting against the police for allegedly protecting the driver who killed their relative Sikander Hayat in a hit-and-run accident on Sillanwali Road on Saturday (July 28). They said the police had buried the body following the accident to avoid taking action against the suspect.

The body was exhumed on the order of Civil judge Ameer Mukhtar Gondal and handed over to the family

The police denied the allegations and said they had buried the body because there were no documents on it with which to identify it. Cantonment police said they had arrested the driver suspected in the case but refused to identify him.

Police said they had to charge the protesters with batons to disperse them. They said action was taken against them after they refused to end a blockade of Khushab Road, which was causing a traffic jam.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 1^st, 2012.