May 12, 2008	Monday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 6, 1429

FAISALABAD, May 11: The family, whose suicide bid outside the Chief Minister’s Secretariat in Lahore on May 9 was foiled by policemen, says they will kill themselves if the government does not provide justice to them.

Lahore Civil Lines police on May 9 took Nasreen and her three children into custody when she sprinkled kerosene on her and sons Abid, Sajid and Mubin to commit suicide outside the Chief Minister’s Secretariat.

Narrating her ordeal amid sobs, Nasreen said more than a dozen ‘criminals’ of the area broke into her house in Afghanabad on Dec 4 last and threw them out. She said that she immediately reported the incident to police for help, but to no avail.

“We are facing financial-crunch as bread winners of my family -- Abid and Sajid -- are jobless,” she said.

“To rid of the situation, we have been running from pillar to post for the last many months.”

Nasreen’s husband Muhammad Iqbal has been bed-ridden for a couple of years because of a fatal accident.

She said though Gulberg police registered a case against criminals -- Farooq, Alamgir, Jehangir, Mujahid and some others -- under sections 148,149, 337-H2, 427, 428 and 452 of the Pakistan Penal Code, but did not arrest them.

She said she visited all police officials in the district for justice, but “they had no time to listen to complaints against influential criminals”.

As a last resort, she said, they lodged an appeal with police officials that the family would commit self-immolation outside the Chief Minister’s House, if justice was not done. The officers overlooked the threat, so we had no option but to commit self-immolation.

Her son, Abid, alleged the Gulberg police were still helping the criminals. He claimed an investigation officer deleted Section 452 from the FIR only to weaken the case.

“Now, police high-ups say Section 452 will again be included in the case,” he said.

Prolonged litigation has left the family under a huge debt. Abid Ali, elder son of Nasreen, lost his job as medical-rep when he failed to maintain his job schedule because of the case.

His brother, Sajid Ali, was also fired as an office boy with a local lawyer. Nowadays both brothers are seeking jobs as well as justice.

Investigation conducted by Dawn revealed that nominated criminals are wanted in a number of cases in different police stations. Farooq is booked in 51 cases, Alamgir 50, Jehangir 14, and Mujahid 17 cases in different police stations.

Deputy Inspector General (operations) Muhammad Aslam Tareen told Dawn the intruders were notorious criminals and wanted by police in different cases of heinous crimes.

He said investigation in-charge Obaidur Rahman and investigation officer Naimatullah were suspended from service for not helping the aggrieved family.

He said investigation was under way and raids would be conducted to arrest the criminals.