Showdown in Punjab: Slaying of two lawyers sparks fury on streets

Black coats to observe three-day mourning

BAHAWALPUR/ SIALKOT/ MULTAN/ FAISALABAD:

Angry lawyers across Punjab took to the streets after two of their colleagues were killed and two others injured on Monday during a clash between police officials and the lawyers community in Sialkot’s Daska city.

According to reports, protesting lawyers torched the Daska city police station and the assistant commissioner’s office, and damaged police vans in Gujranwala, Multan and Lahore. They also thrashed police officials and anyone they could get their hands on, including members of the media and ordinary citizens.

The furore erupted after Daska SHO Shehzad Warraich opened fire on the lawyers protesting near the Daska police station, resulting in the deaths of Daska Bar Association (DBA) President Rana Khalid Abbas, Advocate Irfan Chauhan and a pedestrian. Two lawyers, Jahanzeb Shahid and Samiullah Malhi, and another pedestrian were also injured in the incident.

A source in the DBA said the SHO was on his way to the police station when a lawyer verbally abused the officer, who then snatched his constable’s gun and opened fire on the lawyers.

Shedding light on the reason for bad blood between the lawyers and the police, DBA General Secretary Awais Sindhu said Advocate Amir Basharat Bajwa had visited the Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) office to obtain his nikahnama (marriage certificate), but the officials used derogatory language with him and a scuffle ensued.

Sindhu said he and DBA President Abbas were at a NADRA office when they were informed that lawyers were being thrashed at the TMA office. They rushed to the scene and found that SHO Warraich and other police officials had cordoned off the TMA office and the lawyers were taken hostage inside.

“We tried to enter, but the police officials didn’t allow us to go through. Heated words were exchanged between the lawyers and the police,” said Sindhu. “When we went to the police station to file a complaint, the SHO opened fire on us.”

He said Abbas’s brother Rana Qayyum had lodged an FIR at the Daska city police station against SHO Warraich and more than six other police officials.

He denied reports that the lawyers had torched the police station. “Police are trying to taint the lawyers’ image. They are also making attempts to divert everyone’s attention from the lawyers’ murders towards arson.”

According to DPO Sialkot, SHO Warraich has been arrested. The DPO has formed a committee to investigate the incident.

CPO Gujranwala Waqas Naseer said some relatives of the deceased lawyers were part of the mobs and sought to create disorder. He said the police had arrested four suspects for creating unrest.

Complete strike

Lahore Bar Association Senior Vice President Muhammad Jahangir Bhatti said a complete strike would be observed on Tuesday (today). He also announced a three-day mourning, saying that funeral prayers will be offered in absentia at PMG Chowk.

Following the Daska incident, the lawyers fraternity staged protests in several cities across the province. Lahore High Court Chief Justice Manzoor A Malik has taken suo motu notice of the incident and issued directives for Rangers to be deployed at Daska courts.

Lawyers in Multan boycotted court proceedings and announced that police would be barred from entering the district court’s premises. They also announced a two-day mourning.

They demanded that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif suspend the Punjab chief minister and the provincial police chief, and register a murder case against them.

Hundreds of lawyers in Faisalabad, led by District Bar Association President Malik Muhammad Ayub Sialvi, held a sit-in at Zila Council Chowk.

Sialvi said the Daska incident was the worst display of police highhandedness and brutality. He said the lawyers in Daska were protesting against police atrocities when they were attacked.


Published in The Express Tribune, May 26^th, 2015.