LAHORE, Nov 8: The Punjab as well as Lahore police are allegedly violating privacy and misbehaving with female family members of wanted lawyers and political leaders and activists of opposition parties in their absence during house raids.

The number of such complaints from Lahore and other parts of the province is growing.

Complainants say police not only entered their houses without permission, but also misbehaved with women in the absence of targeted male members.

Reports from Faisalabad suggest that police even used ladders to enter the houses.

As women police are not being used during raids, male personnel do their job traditionally by harassing women and children.

According to a Jamaat-i-Islami press release, a police team raided the house of the party’s provincial information secretary in Islampura after breaking the main gate at around 3am on Thursday.

The police, after not finding the wanted man, adopted a humiliating attitude and ransacked the house during search. Later, the DSP and his team hurled threats on the family and left the place.

In Faisalabad, the police reportedly entered some houses of PML-N activists by scaling walls even after women family members had told them about the absence of targeted people.

In one case, a raiding team made a family to serve them meal since they had been on a search mission for several days.

A capital city police officer seeking anonymity admitted that he had also received such complaints.

Asked about the use of women police, he said they had not been engaged.

“Although the strength of women police is not as required, the high-ups want male police to accomplish the task,” he said.