NAWABSHAH, Dec 25: Policemen beat up an official of an intelligence agency black and blue when he argued with them over traffic jam on the Kutchehry road here on Thursday.

The verbal quarrel soon turned ugly when the policemen attacked the official identified as Shafiq and left him seriously injured. He was then taken into custody and moved to A-Section police station.

Soon afterwards, more than 15 of Mr Shafiq’s colleagues and senior officials reached the police station and exchanged hot words with police officials, sources in police said. At one stage in the course of verbal quarrel policemen trained their guns at the agency men and the SHO, Suleman Bhutto, and the policemen involved in the incident saw their chance to flee, the sources said. They escaped in a mobile van.

The agency men moved their injured colleague to PMC Hospital after getting a medical letter before senior police officials led by SP Investigation Tahir Noorani arrived at the police station to settle the dispute.

The sources said that the high-ups of police and the intelligence agency had taken serious notice of the incident and sought report.

SPO of City Aijaz Tarin told Dawn that the SHO and the three policemen had been suspended and an inquiry committee had been formed with SP investigation as its head. No FIR was lodged till the filing of this report.

PROTEST: A large number of people, including women, held a demonstration outside the A-Section police station on Thursday in protest against occupation of a house.

Ms Bashiran Bibi who led the protest told journalists that some armed Zardari tribesmen barged into her house in Ghulam Hyder Shah Colony, forced them out at gunpoint and occupied it.

She said that her son, Liaqat Arain, had already been implicated in a fake criminal case and was under arrest. She demanded that the DPO take notice of the injustice and direct police to arrest the occupants and get her house vacated.