LAHORE – Sanda police have yet not registered a case against some policemen from the Sherankot Police Station for trespassing on a factory, torturing the factory’s owner and robbing him of valuables and cash. The policemen from the Sanda Police accepted the complaint from the victim after 30 hours of the mishap.
Mian Shabbir, a resident of Abu-Bakar Colony in Sanda police precincts, told Pakistan Today that he was in his office inside his factory Thursday noon when six or seven men dressed in plainclothes stormed into his office. He said the men were looking for a proclaimed offender, who according to them had entered his factory in order to save himself from the police. He said the men who entered his office were policemen from Sherankot Police and a sub-inspector, Shabbir Raza, led them.
Mian said that when he showed his ignorance about any proclaimed offender’s presence, the policemen started subjecting him to severe torture and snatched Rs 50,000 in cash, one mobile phone and an expensive wristwatch from him. He said that when he started raising the alarm for help, the policemen fled on a corolla car, a police van and a motorcycle. Mian said that locals saw them fleeing over which they got infuriated.
More than three hundred locals gathered at his place and later approached Double Sarkan Stop on Bund Road and blocked the road. He said that locals staged a protest and kept the road blocked for more that two hours and set tyres on fire. He said that locals chanted anti police slogans and demanded the Punjab government take stern action against those responsible.
He said that while they were protesting, DSP Sanda Qasim Khan reached the scene and assured them that police would tak action against the people involved, over which local residents dispersed peacefully. Mian said when he and his few friends reached the office of DSP Sanda, the DSP advised them to ‘settle’ the matter. “I was stunned on hearing the DSP’s statement,” said Mian. “We later left the place after telling the DSP that they will not compromise until police will register a case against the aforesaid policemen,” Mian added.
He said that they had left the office of DSP after leaving an application. He said that on Friday when they went to Sanda Police Station for taking the copy of FIR, they came to know that no case had been registered so far, over which they met SHO Sanda Inspector Zahid and filed a complaint. He said that the SHO received the complaint but said that they will register a case after taking instructions from SP Iqbal Town Romail Akram.
On being contacted by Pakistan Today, DSP Sanda Qasim Khan said that policemen entered the Mian’s factory to arrest the factory’s watchman, Yahya Khan, who was also involved in drug selling and also carried illegal weapons. He claimed that policemen did not rob Mian. According to the DSP, Mian was trying to create a scene.
He said they should go for a patch-up rather than going for legal proceedings. He said that checking suspicious men was the police’s duty and officials from Sherankot police did the same. He said that they even saved Mian and others from legal proceeding as they could have easily registered a case of ‘demonstration’ against them.
