Code of misconduct: PK-18 candidate accused of assaulting Charsadda police

Guards of ANP candidate Arshad Abdullah allegedly barged into Utmanzai police station.

CHARSADDA:

A case was filed on Saturday against former provincial minister and Awami National Party (ANP) PK-18 candidate Barrister Arshad Abdullah and his guards for harassing and assaulting Utmanzai police in Charsadda.

Tariq Khan, head constable at the Utmanzai police station told The Express Tribune policemen were patrolling in Uthmanzai late Friday night and stopped a man for a routine check. The officials recovered an unlicensed pistol from the suspect, identified as Farid Khan, and took him to the police station.

At approximately 12:30am former Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) law minister Arshad Abdullah arrived at the station, flanked by more than 20 people, including his security guards. They demanded Farid be released, added Tariq.

The officers at the station refused to do so upon which Abdullah’s guards identified as Shakir, Asfandiyar, Doulat, Salman and Zubair allegedly aimed their guns at the on-duty officers, Nizar, Tariq Khan, Waqas, Qasim and Shahinshah.

“The guards backed the officers up against a wall at gunpoint and told them to stand still,” said Tariq. The rest of the men accompanying Abdullah proceeded to recover the prisoner’s unlicensed weapon and hurled abuses at the police, threatening them of dire consequences.

The head constable said a case was filed against the former minister and his 23 aides on the charges of assault, harassment and obstructing the police from doing their job.

When contacted, Abdullah claimed the harassment allegations were the ‘establishment’s tactics’ to remove the ANP from the electoral race in K-P. He said his party was not provided the security it needs, counter-alleging that the police was harassing its workers.

“Our leaders have already complained to the election commission about the lack of security.” Abdullah asserted the caretaker government was anti-ANP and was therefore ignoring its requests.

According to the candidate, the party has also lodged complaints with the IG police and the CCPO Peshawar but they ignored them.

Abdullah said his party had received threats in Charsadda as well; instead the police want to withdraw security and are harassing the ANP workers.

“This will have a negative effect on our election campaign. While the others [parties] are free to campaign, we are being restricted by such measures,” he said.

Meanwhile, Abdullah was granted bail before arrest till May 14 by Additional Sessions Judge Shehnaz Hameed Khattak on Saturday.

Earlier, another ANP candidate, Syed Masoom Shah of PK-21 had similar complaints against the Charsadda police.   Shah and three others were injured in an attack on his convoy in Charsadda two weeks ago and his brother claimed the police had not given any prior warning about such security threats.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2013.

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