Lazy policing: ‘Poor labourers’ arrested over robbery at Faraz’s house

Robbers even took away the late poet’s Hilal-e-Imtiaz.

ISLAMABAD: Instead of arresting the real culprits behind a burglary the house of poet Ahmed Faraz here on Tuesday, the Aabpara police arrested four labourers who were working at an under construction house in the same street.

Three gunmen entered Faraz’s house, where his family still lives, in Sector G-6/3 and took away cash, mobile phones, a laptop and gold ornaments.

The robbers even took away the Hilal-i-Imtiaz, Tamhga-i-Imtiaz and Pride of Performance medals awarded to one the most prominent poets of the current era, who passed away in 2008.

The armed men held the inmates, including his widow and son, hostage at gunpoint for around half-an-hour.

The Quick Response Force of the police as well as Rangers patrolling in the area failed to reach the crime scene.

Meanwhile, cops from the Aabpara Police Station, which is close to the crime scene, also arrived quite late.

The police sources said that on the direction of Investigation Officer Ghulam Rasool, four labourers were arrested from an under-construction house.

Sources said that the police was still clueless about the actual robbers and only picked up the “poor labourers” to claim the investigation was moving ahead. “These are typical tactics …arresting poor people instead of making an effort to catch the real criminals,” said a police official from the same police station, who requested not to be named.

Rasool confirmed to The Express Tribune that they had arrested the labourers while requesting for this detail not to be disclosed.

Reporting it will negatively impact the investigation, he claimed. When asked why he picked up the labourers, Rasool refused to comment.

Aabpara Police SHO Khalid Awan claimed that the complainant’s family had informed the police very late, which is why the police response was delayed.

The SHO seemed genuinely surprised when asked about the arrest of the labourers, saying he was unaware of this and assuring that he would look into it.

“Why would an investigation officer arrest the labourers?” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 9^th, 2015.