RAWALPINDI: Police and Elite Force Commandos’ reinforcements were called to Kotli Sattian after hundreds of people, belonging to the Satti family, attacked the police station and tortured the station house officer (SHO) and his subordinates, apart from blocking the highway to protest against the police’s attitude, on Wednesday.

The protest began at about 4.30pm and went on till 9.30pm, despite the efforts by the reinforcements.

The issue began when the police was settling a property dispute between two residents of Karor, Adeel Anwar Satti and Aftab Satti. According to preliminary reports, SHO Lehrasiab Khan and Sub-Inspector Hafeezullah were trying to mitigate the issue, when the SHO passed some obnoxious remarks against the Satti families, which annoyed the involved parties.

On hearing the remarks, both the rivals got together and started abusing the police instead. Within a short time, a large mob consisting of Satti family members attacked the inspector, tortured him and tore his uniform. They also thrashed his subordinate.

A large number of people also blocked the main road with stones and pelted bricks on the police station, while shouting slogans against the police. The protesters demanded the police high-ups to suspend the SHO, who they claimed disgraced their families, threatening with a never-ending protest.

Once the protest gained momentum, Rawalpindi’s Regional Police Officer Akhtar Omer Hayat Laleka sent reinforcements to help the local police; however, their efforts proved unproductive as they were unable to control the protesters and restore the traffic.

When the deputy superintendent of the Kotli Sattian police, Muhammad Khan, was contacted, he assured he was trying to convince the protesters to call off their protest, as an inquiry was to be launched to ascertain the real cause of the problem which culminated in the massive outrage from the public.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2014