Guru’s killing: Eunuchs halt protest after police assurance

Threaten to besiege Supreme Court of Pakistan if killers not arrested in two days.

GUJRANWALA:

A group of eunuchs warned on Thursday that if the killers of their guru were not arrested in two days they would hold protest demonstrations in all major cities of the province and hold a sit-in in front of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Sonnu Lal, a resident of Islamabad, said that the protest drive had been suspended on police’s assurance that the killers of Guru Ramazan would be arrested in two days.

He was talking to the media at a demonstration in front of the office of the city police officer.

Earlier, Lal and Azam Mehr, the deputy superintendent of police (Civil Lines), met for two hours. Mehr said Civil Lines police had already registered a murder case and were looking for the suspects.

The protesters accused police of delaying action against the suspects, identified in the FIR as Mithoo, Baoo and Bagga, on Tuesday night. Chanda, one of the witnesses cited in the FIR, told The Express Tribune that she had explained the location of the dera to the police but they had refused to carry out a raid to arrest the suspects. “They aided their escape,” she said.

Civil Lines Station House Officer Arif Munir Butt rejected the charge. He said the raid was delayed to wait for the autopsy report. “We needed the autopsy report to arrest the men mentioned in the FIR,” he said.

He said a raid was later carried out but the suspects were missing.

The FIR registered on a complaint by Imran, brother of Guru Ramazan, stated that he was killed on Tuesday night on refusing to return the payment received for a dance performance.

It said the killers had quarrelled with Ramazan after the dance performance by the latter and some of his dance students at their dera in Sialkoti Gate area. “They demanded that the payment be returned and shot Ramazan on his refusal to do so,” it said.

The deceased had been running a dance academy called Shula Bai Academy in Sialkoti Gate area.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 14^th, 2012.