‘Police highhandedness’: ‘Inebriated’ cop beats rickshaw driver

Incident triggers protest; demonstrators want constable to be beaten up publicly.

FAISALABAD:

A police constable was arrested on Wednesday for beating up a rickshaw driver and setting fire to his rickshaw.

D-Type Colony police said that the constable, Ashraf Gujjar, was apparently inebriated at the time he thrashed the driver, Muhammad Ameen, and damaged his vehicle.

The injured driver was rescued by some passers-by and taken to a hospital, from where he was discharged a few hours later.

The incident triggered a protest by the residents of the area and rickshaw drivers.

They gathered in front of the D-Type Colony police station on Sabzi Mandi Road and shouted slogans against police highhandedness. They alleged that the police were trying to protect the constable and were hesitant to register a case against him.

They blocked the road and threatened to vandalise the police station. They demanded that an assault case be registered against the constable and that he should be fined for damaging the rickshaw driver’s property.

They demanded that the constable be beaten up publicly to set an example.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Ameen said that he was waiting in his rickshaw at Sabzi Mandi Road, when Constable Gujjar approached him and started abusing him. He said when he asked Gujjar for the reason for his behaviour, he started beating him. He said when Gujjar started kicking the rickshaw, he pushed him away.

Seeing him fall to the ground and being unable to get up, he said, he realized that Gujjar was drunk or under the influence of some narcotics.

He said Gujjar then took out a bottle of some liquid, threw it on the rickshaw engine and set it on fire.
He said he also beat him up.

“I was so shocked that I could not react,” Ameen said.

He said some passers-by caught Gujjar and informed the police station. They also took him to a hospital for first aid.

The protesters sat in front of the police station for more than three hours before a police team headed by the station house officer visited the scene. The SHO informed the protesters that Gujjar had been arrested. He assured them that a case would be registered against him. He said police were waiting for Gujjar’s medical test reports to initiate legal action against him.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2013.