RAWALPINDI: Four people, including two policemen, were injured after a mob attacked the Pirwadhai police station to get a suspected robber freed on Monday.

Reinforcement called to the police station lobbed tear gas shells on the attackers besides using batons to disperse them. The police said eight of the attackers were put behind bars. This was the second such incident in which a police station was ransacked in the garrison city.

On August 10, more than 200 activists of the PML-N youth wing, led by a former MNA, ransacked the New Town police station to release three motorcycles impounded for doing wheelies. However, so far the police have not taken any legal action against the attackers.

The Pirwadhai police station was attacked after the police arrested Atif Abbasi on the charge of snatching a motorcycle.

The police claimed that Abbasi had been declared a proclaimed offender in two murder cases dated December 28, 2012, and an attempted murder case of July 24, 2013, registered with the Ratta Amral police. He had also been declared a court absconder in another attempted murder case registered on July 27, 2011, with the Ratta Amral police.

The Pirwadhai police arrested Abbasi on the charge of snatching a motorcycle from Khayaban-i-Sir Syed on June 16 this year.

Soon after the suspect was taken into custody, over 50 of his relatives and friends reached outside the police station.

“We were not expecting that the protesters would attack the police station but all of a sudden they started throwing stones into the building,” a police official said. “Had the police not retaliated, the police station would have been set on fire.”

He claimed that the protesters also fired gunshots though nobody was injured.

ASI Mohammad Asif and constable Mohammad Ali sustained cuts and bruises after being hit with stones. Two pedestrians were also injured who were taken to the District Headquarters Hospital and later allowed to go home. The police claimed that they arrested eight people for ransacking the police station.

The protesters said they had already reached a patch-up with the robbery victim but the police picked their relative.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2016