RAWALPINDI: Business had been slack for Muhammad Rafiq and Sagheeruddin for weeks as the two brothers-in-law sat worrying in their sign painting shop in Gulzar-i-Quaid locality last Tuesday.

Late in the afternoon a client arrived who wanted his “Evening Coaching Academy” painted on a wall close to the Askari Six Tower apartments. Happy, the two painters readily agreed to do that.

But what they took as godsend turned out to be a harrowing experience as they got to the job.

They didn’t realise that these are ‘counterterrorism’ times - and wall-chalking, howsoever innocent, could amount to an act of terrorism.

Officers in a passing police patrol car spotted the two poor painters at their work and demanded to know if they had taken permission to do what they were doing. Their reply, that the man who engaged them would have, did not satisfy the officers.

Both ‘culprits’ were taken to the Airport Police Station and booked them for violating a government ban on wall-chalking.

“I was at my job when my cousin called me and told me about their plight. I immediately rushed to the police station to know what fate awaited my old father and uncle,” Muhammad Saleem, elder son of Muhammad Rafiq, told Dawn.

The FIR registered against them just said they were caught painting ‘CAMS Academy’ on a wall.

However, the son’s pleadings that they were innocent of any subversive activity did not work with the police who have orders to strictly apply anti-terrorism laws.

“Any kind of writing on walls is an offence under the new laws,” informed a senior police officer.

“My poor, innocent father and uncle were shifted from the police lock-up to the Central Jail Adiala as terrorists the same evening to stay there until a fine of Rs25,000 is paid for each,” Rafiq’s son said.

It took the family of small means two days to arrange that ‘heavy amount’ and the two ‘terrorists’ sign painters were released on Thursday.

A stream of relatives and neighbours has been visiting them since their return home to offer sympathy. No one believes what they were doing amounted to a terrorist activity.

“People who put the police on such hunts should instead go after the sectarian elements that disseminate hate messages openly,” they say.

Since the promulgation of new laws by the government, police have been picking up people and slamming them in jail for activities which had nothing to do with terrorism.

A large number of peaceful citizens, apparently unaware of such a law, are facing harsh treatment for not registering their tenants with the police.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2015

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