JHANG, March 22: Despite the police higher-ups’ stock-taking into Jhang police stations ‘reluctance’ to register cases, the Masson police station staff finds it hard to part with old habits.

In the most recent instance, Masson police station SHO had reportedly refused to register a case against some villagers, who plundered jewellery and other valuables from a peasant’s house at Thatti Khair Shah village, and tried to abduct his daughter-in-law.

Muhammad Iqbal works at fields at Thatti Khair Shah village on Jhelum’s bank, about 32 kilometres from here, in the Masson police station precinct. He told Dawn that on the night between March 15 and 16, at least 10 armed men, led by a lumberdar of Liaghari village, stormed into his house and fired at him.

He said four of the robbers entered his son’s room, beat him and collected jewellery and other valuables. The armed men dragged his daughter-in-law out of the room and tried to abduct her. However, some villagers came to her rescue and freed her from the absconding men, he added.

According to Iqbal, he along with some local elders, who were eye-witnesses to the incident, visited the Masson police station the next day and informed the SHO all that happened. He said the SHO sent an assistant sub-inspector with them to visit the place of the incident and verify the contents of the complainant’s application.

The ASI examined the place and cross-questioned dozens of eye-witnesses present there. The peasant said the ASI was shown the marks of bullets on the wall, and he found a number of empties from the site. He assured the peasant that the SHO would register a case the next day. However, the complainant said the officials on duty asked him to wait for another day to get his problem solved.

The complainant said when he visited the police station the next day, the SHO told him that Sub-Inspector Hakim Khan Hazari, who is his colleague and a resident of Leghari village, where the alleged gang lives, had come to the police station in the morning and told him that the accused were innocent. Therefore, he said, he would not register a case against them.

Accompanied by notables, Iqbal once again went to the police station, but found no relief. Now he intends to approach the Jhang district police officer before knocking at the judiciary’s doors, this correspondent learnt.