Citizens flock to ‘staged’ protest

Police says demo organised to exert pressure

FAISALABAD: Scores of Makkoana residents staged a protest demonstration on Wednesday against the brutal killing of a youngster.

The protestors gathered at Makkoana Chowk and blocked the thoroughfare for traffic by placing the body of Mazhar Iqbal, the deceased, there. Anwar Ali, one of the demonstrators, said Kararwala resident Iqbal had fallen in love with a girl from the same locality. Ali said the girl had responded positively to his overtures. He said the couple had started seeing each other thereafter.

Ali said the girl had asked Iqbal to come see her at her residence on October 27. He said her relatives had gotten incensed on seeing them together. Ali said they had doused Iqbal with kerosene oil and set him alight.

He said the deceased was taken to a hospital where he had died eight days later. Ali alleged that police had not taken any action after being informed about the incident as the girl’s family had bribed some officials. Instead, he said, police had declared it a case of suicide. Ali said Iqbal had told his relatives and attendants that the girl’s relatives had burned him after discovering the couple together.

The demonstrators raised slogans condemning the brutal killing of the youngster and demanded the immediate arrest of those responsible. They brought traffic to a halt and long queues of static vehicles were seen at Jaranwala-Makkoana Road.

The protestors dispersed from the spot after a Saddar police station resorted to baton charge. “The boy forcibly entered the girl’s residence and tried to meet her. He later doused himself with kerosene oil when she refused to see him,” the Saddar SHO told The Express Tribune. He said this was why police had treated the case as that of a suicide. The SHO said the family of the deceased had organised the demonstration in a bid to pressurise police and harass the girl’s relatives.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2015.