PESHAWAR: Residents of various suburban localities of the provincial metropolis on Wednesday demonstrated against the arrest of innocent people by the Mattani police and demanded of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police chief to take stern action against the guilty officials.

The demonstration was held outside the Peshawar Press Club wherein people belonging to Sherikera, Pasani, Mattani and Adezai villages participated. They were holding banners and placards inscribed with demands for action against the policemen involved in arrest of innocent people.

Javaid Akhtar, a participant of the protest, told reporters on the occasion that the Mattani police had started raids on houses of innocent people on the pretext of arresting proclaimed offenders and also mishandled the senior citizens and female members of many families. “We are not against the police action to arrest the criminals, but the raiding parties should not harass the relatives of such people,” he said. He also demanded of Chief Justice of Pakistan to take notice of the police highhandedness. The police, he said had also taken away household items from different houses and implicated people in fake cases.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2018