This happened after a quarrel broke out between police officials near the Sindh-Punjab check post in the Shahwali Frontier Corps (FC) paramilitary precincts.
According to an eye witness, who wished to remain anonymous, the incident occurred when a naib subedar had a quarrel with a passenger in a bus. The naib subedar began to insult the passenger and eventually began beating him with his shoes when the driver of the bus Mushtaq told the SHO about the quarrel. “I called the police because the matter began to get out of hand. The quarrel started because the passenger refused to give up his seat for the naib subedar,” Mushtaq said. SHO Chingwani told Constable Sajjad to bring both men to the police station for questioning. When the constable went to the scene and tried to stop the naib subedar from beating the passenger, he slapped the constable.
Another brawl began between the constable and the naib subedar and Mushtaq said that he had to summon the police again. “I had to call the police again because the matter had gotten even worse when the constable got involved. There were death threats being thrown about,” Mushtaq said. “When I tried to reason with the constable, they both began to hit me,” he added.
The SHO reached the scene and released the passenger. Fifteen minutes after the incident, the naib subedar went to his FC camp and returned to the police station with 60 FC commandos who held the police at gun point, blind folded ASI Abdul Jabbad, SHO Imitiaz Chingwana and Constable Sajjad and crossed the border into Sindh and onwards to Balochistan.
In Balochistan, the officials took the police to their barracks and spent the night beating and torturing them, said the police officials.
The FC officials tore the policemen’s clothes, slashed their faces with knives and flogged them with whips.
The police reached the scene after receiving permission from senior officials to go and retrieve the kidnapped officials. Three vans of police officials surrounded the FC camp on Sui Road and DSP Rojhan Taimur Durrani, ASP Attaur Rehman, Inspector Irshad Shad reached the scene at 6 am on Saturday and began negotiations.
Police officials returned to Rajanpur and 60 separate FIRs have been filed against Ejaz, Talha and others for abduction for ransom and terrorism. “We will pursue the matter and they will face the law,” said ASI Abdul Jabbar, adding that the police had only done their duty.
“They held us for over eight hours and beat us nearly to death,” said SHO Chingwarni. “They burnt Sajjad with cigarette butts and knives,” he said.
Sajjad was found unconscious on Saturday evening in Rojhan, where FC commandos had thrown him outside their gates.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 19th, 2010.
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