BAHAWALNAGAR: Traders of Baldia Road have demanded the district police officer (DPO) take notice of a raid by B Division police on a mobile shop, arresting the shop owners without a first information report (FIR) and later releasing them after a video of the incident went viral.

Baldia Road Traders Association Senior Vice President Imran said around 12 plainclothes and uniformed police officials barged into his shop, tortured and abused him and his brother, Shani, and took them both to the police station.

Imran said they were told that there was no case against them but they were taken into custody over a money dispute of their late father. He said that in the meanwhile, other traders reached the B Division police station and started protesting over this “highhandedness” of security officials and CCTV footage of the incident also went viral on social media. He said the policemen then apologised and released them.

Imran and other traders demanded the Bahawalnagar DPO take notice against the police officials involved in the incident.

B Division SHO Mushtaq Bajwa claimed that no one was tortured or abused. He further claimed that the men were involved in defrauding people financially and there were several applications against them.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2020