LAHORE: PTI leaders Mahmoodur Rashid and Chaudhry Sarwar have alleged that the body of a party candidate for councillor from UC-84 bearing torture marks was recovered from the canal on Monday, demanding early arrest of his killers.

At a joint press conference here on Tuesday, they said the party would not politicise the issue of the first information report (FIR) and heirs of deceased Mian Akbar would be free to nominate the suspects in the police report.

Quoting Akbar’s uncle Aleem Khan, they claimed that the deceased had been receiving threatening calls from unidentified people for the last five days.

Ch Sarwar said the Samanabad SHO had informed him that Salahuddin Pappi, a PML-N candidate for vice-chairman of the UC, had attacked the PTI rally in Ichhra on Monday. He lamented there was a law of jungle in the province as the police were supporting the suspect.

Police say man had no political affiliation, killed in revenge

However, Garden Town SHO Sohail Iftikhar refuted the claims of PTI leaders, saying the man found dead in the Garden Town area, was not a PTI candidate in local government elections. He said Muhammad Akbar, 45, was a resident of Ichhra and was an electrician by profession. He did not have affiliation with any political party. The initial investigation revealed that Akbar was having an affair with two different women, he said, adding that he had purchased some edibles from the market and was on the road when he was killed by unidentified men. He was found dead near Ichhra Bridge on the Ferozepur Road.

Some locals alerted the area police who shifted the body to morgue for medico-legal formalities and registered a case against unidentified person(s) on the complaint of victim’s brother Khalid.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and its allied parties in the by-polls have expressed their distrust in police and district administration and demanded Rangers deployment for the security duty in the NA-122 and PP-147.

PTI’s Chaudhry Sarwar, Jamaat-i-Islami’s Mian Maqsood, Sunni Ittehad Council’s Hamid Raza and others demanded on Tuesday that as opposition workers were being harassed by the rulers and the Punjab police and administration were siding with the ruling party the election commission should bring in the Rangers for maintaining peace during the by-election.

The demand came after a meeting of the opposition allies in the wake of the killing of Akbar, who, the PTI claimed, was its candidate for local body polls, allegedly by the PML-N workers on Monday.

The opposition allies warned the Punjab government and police would be responsible for any untoward incident against the political workers.

They said ensuring law and order was the government’s responsibility, however, if the rulers themselves would start violating the law then ordinary citizens would have the right to seek security from all law enforcement authorities.

Published in Dawn, October 7th , 2015

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