PESHAWAR: A girl student of a religious seminary in Charsadda has accused the local police of harassing her and her mother in a fake theft case, and demanded punishment to the erring police officials.

Speaking at a news conference at Peshawar Press Club on Monday, the teenaged girl who identified herself as Karishma of Station Korona area of the district, alleged that she along with her mother was on way to Charsadda Bazaar for shopping that police personnel took them to the Charsadda police station.

At the presser, she was also accompanied by her mother, Razia Bibi.

“As we were brought to the SHO’s room three women were already present there. The police officer asked the women about our identity but they denied having any acquaintance with us, but despite that policemen conducted our body search, beat us up and pushed us behind bars,” she alleged. The personnel, she said, also took their photographs.

The girl said she and her mother were implicated in a fake theft case, adding the local court had ordered police to release us.

Karishma said when her father, who was an auto-mechanic, complained to police high ups that SHO Imran used to demand money from him, the police officer got annoyed and ordered their arrest to teach a lesson to her father.

On the occasion, Razia Bibi accused the police of maltreating them and demanded of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and IGP Nasir Khan Durrani to order probe into the matter.

The woman threatened that if justice was not done in the case, she along with her daughter and husband would commit suicide.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2016