Baba Farid’s Urs: Malang gets beaten up for dancing

Malang dancing as a token of devotion to Baba Farid, gets beaten up by police officials.

PAKPATTAN: A man was beaten up and allegedly stripped naked by police and Elite Force officials while the police maintain that he was the one who took off his clothes while dancing.

Police officials who had beat up Hafeez, a Gujranwala resident, claimed that he was dancing in front of women. They rejected that they had stripped him naked, saying that he took off his clothes himself. The officials said they were only trying to push him away and only resorted to beating when he refused to cooperate. Later, some people intervened and made the police stop his beating and covered him with a cloth.

Devotees present at the occasion, however, said that the man was a malang and that he was dancing as a token of devotion to Baba Farid.

Talking to The Express Tribune after arriving at the scene, Pakpattan district police officer Hafiz Kashif, said that he had been told by police officials that the man had taken off his clothes while dancing. He said that the man had then entered the women’s section and was not cooperating with the police. The man will be prosecuted if found guilty of indecency, Kashif said.

The police officials took him away. When The Tribune contacted the City police station, a moharar said that “no such man was brought to the police station today”. He said that he had not registered any criminal case against anyone named Hafeez today.

Later in the day, the DPO stated that he had identified five Elite Force officials who were involved in the incident. They included an assistant sub inspector, Naveed.

Kashif said that he has sent a report to the Elite Force high-ups who would take action against the officials involved in the incident.

DPO’s public relations officer Arshad Dogar, however, said that the police had detained the man for some hours but later he was released.

On a question about his condition, he said he was not aware of the details.

The police also stopped Express TV cameramen from recording the incident. Shaikh Aftab, the security in charge security at the shrine, pushed away the cameraman and warned him not to record the incident.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 3^rd, 2010.