Cases against 31 for attacking PPP meeting

Shots were fired in the air; several vehicles damaged.

FAISALABAD: Police registered cases against 31 people on Sunday for attacking a corner meeting organised by the Pakistan Peoples Party candidate in NA-79 and PP-59.

Those arrested had allegedly shot in the air and damaged several vehicles.

Samundri-Saddar police said that former federal minister Rana Farooq Saeed Khan was presiding over a corner meeting in Chak 476-GB, when a group of men fired shots in the air.

They said the men also attacked some cars and broke their wind screens and windows.

The meeting participants, police said, were also threatened by the men against voting for the PPP candidate.

The offenders then left. Police have registered a case against 31 men.



Talking to reporters later, Khan accused his opponents of attacking the meeting. Calling the attack pre-poll rigging, he said his opponents were afraid of his vote bank in the area.

He also said that some parties wanted to create an insecure environment in the constituency to discourage people from voting.

“We are in a position to respond in kind, but will not do so for the sake of peace and order in the area,” he said.

He said the attack had been carried under a calculated plan and that the district administration should take notice of the incident.

He warned of a protest demonstration if the culprits were not arrested.

The Samundri- Saddar station house officer later told The Express Tribune that a case had been registered against 31 suspects under sections 324, 341, 440, 109, 148 and 149 (intention to kill, wrongful restraint, mischief, rioting, armed with deadly weapon) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

He said no one had been arrested so far.

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