Road blocked to protest witness’s murder

Protesters placed the body on Jail Road and stopped traffic.

FAISALABAD:

Hundreds of residents of Islam Nagar on Tuesday staged a demonstration against police for their failure in arresting the murderers of a man killed on Monday.

The protesters gathered at Jail Road and blocked it for traffic for several hours. They placed the body on the road and chanted slogans against the police and demanded swift action in the matter.

Anees Akram, one of the protesters, told the media that Sarfaraz Sarwar, an elderly clerk at the Divisional Public School, had been a witness in a murder case registered against Abrar and his brother Imtiaz with the D-Type Colony police station.

He said Abrar and Imtiaz had tried several times to prevent Sarwar from appearing as a witness in the case.

They had also offered to buy his silence but he had refused, said Akram. Sarwar had gone to buy breakfast from a restaurant Monday morning when Abrar and Imtiaz shot him dead and fled on a motorcycle, said Akram.



Lyallpur Police Superintendent Sahibzada Bilal Umar and Civil Lines Deputy Superintendent Mian Khan Mohal visited the demonstration and tried to placate the protesters. They assured them that the culprits would be taken to task soon.

The protesters then called off the demonstration and dispersed. Civil Lines police have registered a murder case against Imtiaz and Abrar on the complaint of Gulnaz Bibi, Sarwar’s wife. The body has been sent to a mortuary for post-mortem examination.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2014.