Looking for liquor: Two women injured in Yazman police raid

When women stepped out of their houses and shouted at the police, they were beaten up with sticks and rifles.

BAHWALPUR:

Two women were injured on Sunday in a Yazman police raid in Chak 103-DB.

The women were taken to a hospital, where doctors treating them said that one of them had a broken arm and the other was critically injured.

Scores of residents of the colony later staged a protest against the police on Bahawalpur Road burned tyres to block it.

The protest was led by Doliya Ram, who told The Express Tribune that a Yazman police team had raided the area and harassed the residents by forcing into their houses “to recover liquor”.

He said when several women stepped out of their houses and shouted at the police, they were beaten up with sticks and rifles. He said several women were humiliated as some policemen dragged some of them by their hair and accused them of “helping their men hide liquor”.



He said two of the women, Jiya Ram and Neeno Mai, were badly injured. They were taken to a hospital, where doctors said that one of them was critical due to a head injury, while the other had a broken arm.

Malkoo Ram, one of the protesters, told The Express Tribune that police did not recover anything in the raid. He said they (police) were aware knew that there was no liquor. It was just an excuse for illegally entering the houses and beating the women, he added.

The protesters dispersed when more police arrived at the scene.

Talking to The Express Tribune later, City Station House Officer Ghulam Mohiuddin said that a large quantity of liquor was recovered from a house.



He denied that the women had been beaten by the police saying he would take action against any policeman found guilty. He said the women’s family had been told to get a medico-legal examination of the injured women.

“If torture is proved, cases will be registered against the policemen responsible,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 6^th, 2013.