Local farmer sliced and diced on suspicion

Gang abducts Irshad and chops off his ears and nose taking him for an informer.

MULTAN: A group of proclaimed offenders held a man hostage and cut off his nose and ears on Wednesday afternoon.

In the Bahawalnagar rural areas of Kot Langah, Irshad was kidnapped from near the Nooraywala Barrage late Tuesday night. Police officials later confirmed that Irshad was taken by proclaimed offenders Ghulam Fareed Jhogayga, Jaani Bhuk and Kaali Yaaseenka. Police Inspector Shafaqat said “I recently escaped an attack by ‘Kaali’ and the police have been searching for these men for years.”

Recently, the gang’s chief ‘Joyiha’ was killed during an encounter with the police. “The man was wanted and there was a price of Rs500,000 on his head,” Shafaqat said. “We knew the moment we caught him that his accomplices would retaliate and they kidnapped me two days later. I was tortured for a day but I managed to escape,” he said.

According to the police, the gang has been wanted for over 200 counts of murder, kidnapping and robbery in the district and have several lower operatives in other districts.

Irshad is currently in Bahawalnagar Hospital and his brother Nadeem told police officials and reporters that last month the gang members had slit the throat of another police clerk they suspected of being an informant. “The next day the police found the man’s severed head outside the police station,” Nadeem said. Nadeem said that when the police investigated they found that the victim Mian Muslah had been kidnapped at the same time as Inspector Shafaqat. “They kidnapped people from different police stations. It is scary when murderers and robbers begin kidnapping the police,” Shafaqat said.

Irshad, who is a farmer, works near the Bahawalnagar police station and was taking a cigarette break when he was kidnapped. “They tied my brother up in a gunny bag and questioned him all night. Later they tortured him and he fainted from the pain,” Nadeem said, adding “In the morning they threw him in the same gunny bag outside the police station.”

Hospital sources said that Irshad had lost a lot of blood and was currently in critical condition. Irshad has said that he is innocent and has no attachment with any police authority. “They suspected I was with the police but I know nothing,” he said, adding that senior police officials needed to launch a crack down against such criminals. “These men take regular money from us to keep quiet and if we do not pay, they threaten to kill us and kidnap our families,” Nadeem said.

Bahawalnagar Hospital medical superintendent Akram Bhatti told The Express Tribune that Irshad’s condition was still critical. Police has launched an FIR against the criminals on an application of the victim and his brother.

Nadeem has appealed to the Punjab government to help pay for his brother’s treatment as his family cannot afford the medical expenses.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2011.