RAHIM YAR KHAN: Former MPA of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Chaudhry Muhammad Shafiq Chanab, was arrested by the City-A Division police and released after being kept allegedly in illegal custody for the night.

Police raided the house of Chanab on the Club Road at night and took him to the city’s main police station.

According to Chanab’s lawyer Manzoor Warraich, the police broke into the house of his client at 2am without any warrants or registration of the FIR against him. He said when he, along with other lawyers, reached the police station and inquired about Chanab’s crime, the police asked them to return in the morning. When the lawyers reached the police station at 9am on Thursday and asked the police to present the former MPA before the court, the DSP and SHO said Chanab was arrested for disturbing peace and creating a law and order situation.

Warraich further said the police, seeing the pressure of the PTI workers outside the police station, released Chanab at 11am. He claimed that the police were harassing Chanab because he was running the election campaign of his son, Naeem Shafiq, a PTI-backed independent candidate from PP-263.

TOURISTS: After the recent episode of misbehaviour and harassment of three foreign cyclists in Sadiqabad, the police changed their behaviour and welcomed three foreign cyclists at the Punjab-Sindh border and facilitated them with stay facility at the police station.

According to the police spokesperson Saif Ali Wains, Oberdorfer Felix and Mueller Lukas of Switzerland and Bernstetter Laura Lindsay of Germany arrived at Kot Sabzal on Wednesday where police provided them with security.

When the police inquired them about their next destination, the cyclists said they wanted to stay in the Rahim Yar Khan for a break before departing for Lahore.

The policemen offered them breakfast, guided them about some of the best hotels and offered them a comfortable stay at the Kotsabzal Police Station on the National Highway.

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Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2024