BAHAWALNAGAR: The Mandi Sadiq Ganj police on Monday booked three nominated people and several others for thrashing and threatening a police party in Hasil Sarho village after residents staged a sit-in against the police by placing a woman’s body on the road, accused the police of beating the woman to death and injuring many others during raids on several houses.

Protesters blocked the road near Bareka patrolling post for hours.

They told reporters that late on Sunday, three police officials in plainclothes, led by SI Sohail Asif Ali, raided the village without any search warrant.

They said the police wanted to arrest a suspect in a case registered against 21 people on Sept 9 by their rivals. As the locals resisted, the police left the scene, but only to return about an hour later with dozens of policemen along with the Elite Force on seven official vehicles.

Many booked for threatening policemen

They stormed into several houses and tortured the residents, and during this, elderly Zubaida Bibi died when some policemen hit her with sticks and kicks, they alleged.

The daughter of deceased Zubaida told Dawn that police officials killed her mother by hitting on her back, adding that they arrested their men and damaged everything in the houses on the behest of their rivals.

Protesters dispersed when Investigation Superintendent of Police Farooq Anwar assured them of strict action against those involved in the incident.

However, the police lodged a case against scores of protesters for thrashing and threatening the police team and obstructing government functionaries.

A handout issued by the DPO Office on Monday said the matter of the woman’s murder was being investigated and the inquiry would be finalised in 48 hours. However, the police booked 21 people (rivals of the deceased’s family) under Section 302 of PPC on the complaint of deceased’s son Ismail.

Some members of the deceased’s family and a senior police official, requesting anonymity, told Dawn that the family changed their statement under pressure. They claimed that the police first booked the family in a case of thrashing the police team to pressurise them and later threatened to fix them in the said case if they did not spare the police officials.

Police also offered the family to charge their rivals, according to their wish in the woman’s murder case and also used political influence to divert their statement.

Declaring the police officials innocent, DPO’s spokesperson Ednan Bhatti claimed the SP was actually inquiring about the rivals of the deceased’s family who were involved in the woman’s murder. He said he did not know whether the inquiry was finalised or not.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2022