CHITRAL: The Lower Chitral police arrested a man impersonating himself as undercover deputy superintendent of police of the Special Branch after recovering bogus identity card from his possession.

A day earlier, he was taken into protective custody after his objectionable messenger chat had gone viral on the social media.

Chitral city sub-divisional police officer Sajjad Hussain told Dawn that due to the growing public resentment and indignation over the abusive, vulgar and threatening tone of the accused, Zuhaib Ali, with a woman, he had been taken into protective custody to protect him from possible assault.

He said during the preliminary inquiry, a fake card was recovered from him, leading to his formal arrest and registration of a criminal case against him under sections 170 and 171 of Pakistan Penal Code.

SDPO Hussain said the remand of the accused had been obtained from a local court, while his laptop and mobile phone taken into custody to dig out more facts about his messages on the social media platforms.

He said the accused was the owner of a girls hostel and was running a computer training centre in Bypass Road area.

Meanwhile, the traders observed a shutter-down strike on Wednesday to protest the imposition of federal taxes on them.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2025