Highhandedness: Singer accuses police of harassing her

Says she is being coerced to withdraw petitions against 79 policemen.


Our Correspondent May 23, 2014
The court sought comments from the Iqbal Town SHO by May 29 and ordered the police not to harass the petitioner or her family. PHOTO: FILE

LAHORE:


An additional district and sessions judge on Friday sought comments from the Iqbal Town SHO on a petition by singer Noora Laal who has requested the court to direct the SHO not to coerce her to withdraw a petition she had filed against 79 policemen who allegedly harassed her and some guests at a wedding.


The court sought comments from the Iqbal Town SHO by May 29 and ordered the police not to harass the petitioner or her family.

Laal accused the SHO of threatening her with dire consequences if she did not withdraw petitions she had filed against a deputy superintendent, two station house officers, three sub-inspectors, eight assistant superintendents, 23 constables and 40 unidentified policemen of Wazirabad, City Wazirabad, Sohdra and Gulhar police stations.

Laal said her husband’s close friend Asghar Ali invited her to perform at his brother’s wedding in Phaloki village on May 2, 2012. She said her husband, son, brother and musicians accompanied her to the venue.

She said 78 policemen led by DSP Rana Fawad Shahin raided the venue just as she was about to start her third song. The policemen fired shots in the air and told more than 200 guests to lie on the ground and began frisking them. She said the policemen even frisked women, which was illegal.

She said when she refused to allow the policemen to search her, the DSP used derogatory language against her. The policemen took 60 guests into custody and implicated them in false cases, the singer claimed.

She said the policemen had also stolen mobile phones and the money she had received during her performance. She said the police gave her Rs300,000 out of the Rs500,000 she had collected.

She said now that she was in Lahore, the Iqbal Town SHO was harassing her and her family and coercing them to withdraw the petitions she had filed against policemen in the courts in Wazirabad.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 24th, 2014.

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