SARGODHA, Oct 26: Activists of Jamaat-i-Islami held a sit-in near the DPO office here on Friday to protest against the “biased” attitude of police, who, according to them, were favouring former provincial Minister Chaudhry Farrukh Javed Ghuman and his associates, who had allegedly beaten up ex-MNA Chaudhry Javed Iqbal Cheema on the polling day.

The demonstrators also took out a procession chanting anti-police slogans and demanding immediate arrest of the accused besides cancellation of “false” cases against Chaudhry Javed. The procession was led by two defeated candidates of the MMA, Chaudhry Shams Naveed Cheema and Dr Arshad Shahid, who warned of countrywide protests if the main accused were not arrested.

One Tanzeelur Rehman lodged an FIR against Chaudhry Farrukh, his two sons, son-in-law Faisal Farooq Cheema and 20 others who had allegedly beaten up Chaudhry Javed.

On the other hand, a supporter of Chaudhry Farrukh got a case registered against Mr Javed, his brother Shams Naveed Cheema and three dozen of their supporters.

District Police Officer (DPO) Zafar Iqbal Qureshi told Dawn that a team comprising SP (investigation) Mohammad Aslam Ghauri, Shahpur ASP Syed Waqaruddin, DSP (Saddar) Ijaz Hussain Shah and DSP (city) Abdul Hameed Khan Niazi was investigating the incident.

The team had conducted an impartial inquiry, he said and added, the police would not be influenced by the sit-in. He said some people were trying to politicise the issue.

When this reporter contacted the man in charge of investigation, Mr Ghauri, he said the SHO Saddar had deleted Section 7 of the ATA and sections 365 and 342 of the PPC, as neither any scuffle occurred in and around a polling station nor anybody opened fire.

He said the accused had put up over 200 people including 65 UC Nazimeen of the area in their defence. He said the complainant had been asked to name any villager who could support his version under oath, but nobody came forward. He claimed that he had also asked the injured, Mr Javed, to give a statement under oath, but he refused to do so.

Mr Farrukh and his accomplices have been awarded bail before arrest by an additional sessions judge.