ON Nov 3, I along with my nephew was on way to Zhob from Dera Ismail Khan in our personal vehicle. As we reached the Koti check post at 8.00pm, some 15km away from Dera Ismail Khan, a bearded police hawaldar signalled us to stop. We proved our identity by showing him our CNICs and other relevant documents of the vehicle.

He asked us to come down for a body search. We followed his orders blindly without showing any resistance. He checked everything, and when he failed to find anything missing or invalid, he asked us to show him the road permit. We requested him not to worry or pester us as we are in a hurry. He got infuriated and hurled abuses at us.

However, we tolerated his invective and the flood of vituperation and remained quiet as we did not want to aggravate the situation.

Hearing his abusive language, other people came there and rebuked him for using such an insulting language.

Later, one of the self-styled arbiters told me to give the policeman Rs100 or Rs200 so that the matter could be settled once and for all. But I flatly refused. I tried to contact DPO Dera Ismail Khan to inform him of the unpleasant incident and lodge a complaint with him, but he could not attend my call.

I tried his number again from Zhob but this time, his stenographer told me that ‘sir’ was busy and, according to stenographer, he would call me back. I waited for one week but there was neither a call nor any response from the DPO.

I request the IG police, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to teach his force public mannerism and deploy God-fearing police officers in the districts who can fell distress and pain of a common man.

GULDAR ALI KHAN WAZIR Lakki Marwat