Property dispute: ‘Police set my house on fire’

Petitioner M Saeed said the police were acting at his landlady Abida Anwar’s behest.

LAHORE:

An additional district and sessions judge on Wednesday directed the CCPO to record the statement of a complainant against a Johar Town ASP, SHO and 18 other cops accused of setting his house on fire. He said his pet dog had also been killed.

Petitioner M Saeed told the court that on November 17, Anwar Chaudhry, Usman Chaudhry, Khadim Hussian and 15 others, including the ASP and SHO Muhammad Asif, forced their way into his house, doused it with petrol and set it on fire.

He said the police were acting at his landlady Abida Anwar’s behest. She had ordered him to leave after he had reported the illegal gas connection at the house, he said, but he had obtained a stay order against eviction.

He said his jeep and his dog were burnt in the fire. He said his family was humiliated and detained.

He said when he showed the police officials stay orders, they tore the paper and said they did not recognise it. He said they also threatened to arrest him in forged cases.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 21^st, 2013.