KARACHI: Darakshan police, on the complaint of an army Hawaldar, registered a case on Tuesday against PPP lawmaker Tariq Masood Arain and his over a dozen guards and armed men on charges of attempted murder and others as the lawmaker’s guards allegedly subjected the army squad protecting the family of the Karachi Corps Commander to beating.

“The FIR (485/2017) has been registered on the complaint of Army Hawaldar, Fahimullah Jan, a resident of 5 Corps Headquarters, Karachi,” said a senior police officer who wished not to be named.

The case has been registered under sections 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapons), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 337 (Shajjah: whoever causes on the head or face of any person, any hurt), 324 (attempt to commit qatl-i-amd) and 34 (common intention) of Pakistan Penal Code.

According to the FIR obtained by Dawn, the complainant, Hawaldar Fahimullah Jan, stated that he, along with sepoys Arif, Ali Jan and driver Mohammed Altaf on official duty to protect the family of the Karachi Corps Commander, when reached Khayaban-i-Mujahid at around 2250 hours (10.50pm), one car in which four men were travelling appeared there and stormed into the army VIP squad.

The complainant and other staff were ordered by their senior army officers to check the vehicle and its people. When the army squad asked the vehicle driver to stop, he did not stop the vehicle and a chase began and finally the army squad intercepted the car near Saba Avenue Crossing.

The occupants of the car were asked to furnish their CNICs, but those travelling in the car did not produce their ID cards. In the meantime, two youths, who were later identified as Moon and Asad, made a telephone contact with a person named Tariq who immediately sent two four-wheelers in which 15 to 18 armed men carrying SMGs arrived there, according to the FIR. One person, identified as Manzoor, later arrived along with the gunmen in a Land Cruiser and started beating up the army squad personnel and gave threats of dire consequences to the army personnel. In the meantime, their accomplice, identified as Jehangir, also arrived along with other accomplices and started beating sepoys Arif, Ali Jan and the complainant.

“Their accomplices Moon, Asad and others also beat and injured us and we had to get ourselves treated at the JPMC where a medico-legal report was also prepared,” the complainant said in the FIR.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2017