Manhandling: Two policemen assaulted

HARIPUR: Villagers manhandled two policemen when they allegedly tried to pick up a man without any arrest warrant in Hattar, reported locals.

However, the police contested the claim; maintaining that the man was a drug peddler. Haripur police station constable Asad Saeed stated in his complaint he was conducting a routine patrol with another constable, Riffat Ali, when they came across a man carrying narcotics. When Saeed tried to arrest the accused, five of his accomplices – Rukhsar Shah, Waqar Shah and Goga Shah, and two unidentified men – took the policemen to a hujra at gunpoint. The men kept the officials hostage for hours, beating them black and blue, injuring them. After a tip-off from locals, the SHO raided the hujra and recovered his subordinates, who had been injured. The five men had fled.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2013.