SAHIWAL: The Pakpattan city police on Sunday night arrested and booked a man impersonating a police sub-inspector who was crossing through the VVIP gate at Mashli Chowk for making entry into the Baba Farid shrine to attend the 780th Urs celebrations of the saint.

The [arrested] man was having counterfeit badges, carrying an unlicenced 30-bore pistol and claiming to be a station house officer of a Lahore police station with a visiting card inscribed with name Malik Aakash Joyia.

City police booked him whose real name was Younas Abbas, a resident of Model Town, Lahore, under sections 420, 419, 170, 171 of Pakistan Penal Code and 13-2(a), the Punjab Arms Amendment Ordinance 2015 on the complaint of Pakpattan City SI Muhammad Munir.

Details suggest a man in SHO uniform parked his car at the VVIP entrance zone and tried to pass police check point [walkthrough] gate.

Duty police official Imran Tipu on suspicion stopped him and sought his identity. He showed a visiting card having the SI/SHO identity.

Meanwhile, city SHO Hashim Ali came there and chatted with the suspect. Hashim Ali frisked him and found a CNIC bearing name Younas Abbas and not Aakash Joiya. Police arrested him and took a 30-bore unlicenced pistol into custody.

URS: The780th Urs celebrations have entered the final phase as RPO Tayyab Hafeez Cheema and Commissioner Salwat Saeed on Sunday night opened locks of ‘Bahishti Darwaza’ in the presence of hundreds of devotees and the Dewan family.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2022