FAISALABAD, July 9: The Chak Jhumra police on Tuesday made 30 arrests, including the Pesh Imam of the mosque in village 103-JB (Barnala), allegedly involved in the stoning to death of Zahid Shah accused of blasphemy.

More than 150 policemen, including commandos of Elite Force, participated in an overnight operation on Monday.

During the action, the police faced no resistance, but, after the arrests, more than a hundred villagers surrounded the Chak Jhumra police station and chanted slogans against the police. The area leaders of Tehrik-i-Khatam-i-Nabuwat led the protesters.

They dispersed after assurance from the station house officer (SHO) that the arrested people would not be mistreat, and the innocent would be released after interrogation.

The SHO Saifullah Bhatti recorded the statement of the detainees and found them guilty on various charges which included beating, stoning, stabbing, and killing of Zahid.

The police sources revealed that initially, Zahid was attacked with a knife, allegedly by Muhammad Imtiaz, son of Ghulam Haider. The police arrested Imtiaz and also recovered the weapon.

Contrary to the earlier police claims that no eyewitness was ready to come forward, 14 people recorded their statements under section 161 CrPc. They also identified the accused.

Interestingly, Chak Jhumra police, which had earlier termed the incident “accidental” and “non-cognizable offence” and simply registered it in its roznamcha (log) under section 174 CrPc, have now declared the incident as a cognizable offence and have formally registered a case under section 322, 148 and 149 PPC.

The arrested were identified as Maulvi Faqir Ahmed, Naeem Akhtar, Amjad Ali, Amir Maqsood, Atif Javed, Shahbaz Hassan, Abdul Khaliq, Waris Ali, Kashif Ali, Amir Ali, Saifullah, Falak Sher, Naseer Ahmed, Jameel Ahmed, Nadeem Qaisar, Shah Nawaz, Muhammad Akram, Muhammad Habib, Faisal Saleem, Imran Akram, Muhammad Ikhlaq, Ghulam Ghaus, Muhammad Abdullah, Sanaullah, Sohail Maqsood, Amir Mustansar, Rashid Iqbal, Altaf Hussain, Muhammad Iqbal, Mushtaq Ahmed, and Imtiaz Ahmed. The majority of the arrested are between the ages of 16 to 24.

They all were produced before the civil judge-cum-judicial magistrate, Anwar Nadeem, under tight security. The court on the request of the prosecution sent them to jail on a 14-day judicial remand.