Abuse of power: SHO thrashes bank guard

Police officer claimed unarmed guard should stand outside ATM rather than sit at bank entrance.

ISLAMABAD:

A private security guard stationed outside a private bank branch in Aabpara fell victim to the rage of the area police chief on Friday. The Station House Officer (SHO) of the Aabpara Police Station ruthlessly thrashed the guard and then illegally detained him.

The guard, Riazul Haq from Fateh Jhang, committed only one ‘crime’. He did not stand up when the policeman started talking to him.

SHO Jamshed Khan repeatedly slapped Haq, a private citizen, outside the bank branch where Haq was on duty, according to eyewitnesses, who included a reporter for The Express Tribune.

Security guard Muhammad Mushtaq said he and Haq were sitting on chairs outside the bank, which was closed, when SHO Khan walked towards them and asked them to stand on guard next to the bank’s ATM. According to Mushtaq, Khan said this would help them prevent ATM looting incidents, which become a headache for the police afterwards.

When the unarmed guards explained they couldn’t possibly prevent an armed robbery at the ATM, Khan started swearing at Haq and ordered the 50-year-old guard to stand up, Mushtaq said.

Just as Haq got to his feet, Khan assaulted him, hitting him across the face several times.

When The Express Tribune’s reporter Azam Khan saw the incident and approached the officer, the SHO told off the reporter and boasted, “We can do whatever we want to anyone we want. It is in our powers.”

Khan then proudly admitted to his crime.

“Yes I have beaten him,” Khan said, before questioning the reporter for “interfering in my professional work?”

He felt the guard was not performing his duty and that the incident “is a lesson for him and other guards”.

“He was relaxing in the chair instead of standing outside the ATM. Who will be responsible if there is any untoward incident?” the police officer maintained. “He deserved a slap. I don’t need to explain it to you… do whatever you can,” the police officer said arrogantly.

Mushtaq said the police officers whisked off Haq in a police van immediately after the incident.

Advocate Rizwan Abbasi, a criminal lawyer, said, “The law doesn’t permit any such act unless or until police officials are threatened by the other party,” he said. “If a policeman did this without instigation, he is in complete violation of the law.”

He noted that a policeman found guilty of harming a citizen without just cause, can be prosecuted under sections 351 and 352 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

“Even if the victim doesn’t file a complaint, a departmental inquiry can be lodged against the officer under the same PPC sections,” Abbasi said. Security guards from adjoining office buildings said this was the first time a police officer had assaulted a guard in the market.

Sources in the police department said that recently, a proposal was floated among private security companies by the police to hire the services of retired policemen who are trained to perform security duty. However, this proposal did not gain steam, and the negative response created a wave of anger among the police as far as security guards are concerned. With additional reporting by Waqas Naeem

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2012.