MANSEHRA, June 28: An alleged liquor dealer was severely beaten up and paraded on the streets by police with his face blackened with soot, which shocked the people here.

The police contingents of Shinkiari and Oghi, headed by ASP Ahmad Jamal, raided the hotel of Riaz, alias Chacha, on Naran bypass road and allegedly recovered a few bottles of locally-made liquor and some hashish. Later, Riaz was severely beaten by the police and was paraded in the bazaars of the town by smearing his face with soot.

Two sons and a servant of Riaz were kept in illegal confinement and released at 11pm on Thursday night. Riaz was not remanded to police custody by the local magistrate and was sent for medical examination. He has been admitted to the DHQ Teaching Hospital.

In another raid on a hotel near Ghazikot township on the same day, the police, after having failed to recover the narcotics, ransacked the hotel and booked its servants under the gambling ordinance.

The lawyers of Mansehra have condemned the high-handedness of the police expressed grave concern over the inhuman treatment meted out to Riaz. A panel of lawyers headed by Mohammad Muzaffar Khan has been constituted to defend Riaz and move the Peshawar High Court against the police brutalities.

Other members of the panel were: Mahmood Akhtar, Syed Jamil Shah Sherazi, Raja Imtiaz, Haji Mohammad Amin Khan and Javed Khan.

The Naib Nazim of the Union Council Mansehra City No.1, Syed Munir Hussain Shah, and the PML leader Babar Salim Khan also condemned the police action and demanded an inquiry into the incident.

They said police officials and the high-ups were well aware of some big narcotics dens in and around Mansehra town, but they deliberately avoided taking any action against the culprits.

Shaukat Ali Tanoli, President of Anjuman-i-Tajran, Kashmir Road, also criticized the police high-handedness, saying that the police had got no right of ransacking the private properties.

Meanwhile, a delegation of the Mansehra Social Welfare Society, headed by its President Sajjad Hussain Jhagra, on Friday called on the SSP Mansehra, Syed Ahsan Mahboob, and demanded an impartial inquiry into the incident.

The SSP assured the delegation that action would be taken against the police officials responsible for this ugly incident.

Riaz alias Chacha, while talking to the newsmen in the DHQ Teaching Hospital, Mansehra, said no doubt he had been dealing in liquor some three years back, but he had quit the business and opened a hotel.