In what police officials labelled the first incident of its kind, the on-duty Station House Officer (SHO) of Hudiara police was clubbed to death and two others left seriously injured by suspected land grabbers from Gondh village in the Hudiara police jurisdiction on Saturday. The victim SHO was identified as Malik Arshad Chadhar, 50, resident of Nankana Sahib. He was survived by two children, one son and one daughter.
A senior police officer said Yousaf Khan, the owner of one kanal of land, on Saturday visited the village to plan the construction of a house-cum-farmhouse on his property. When Yousaf reached the village with labourers, members of an alleged land mafia, who belong to the Arain family of the area, resisted and threatened that they leave the area. Both parties exchanged harsh words and started quarrelling. Yousaf informed police of the quarrel at Rescue 15 after which Hudiara SHO Malik Arshad, on routine patrol, reached the spot with four subordinates and arrested some of the villagers. The locals, including women from the Arain family, suspecting that the SHO was patronizing Yousaf Khan, attacked police officials with clubs. One of the attackers hit the SHO’s head with a club after which the victim fell on ground. Attackers continued to kick and punch the SHO. As a result, he received serious wounds on his head, face, neck and ankle and died on the spot due to excessive bleeding. The accused group’s women also attacked other officials and left two seriously injured. The injured policemen informed the local DSP about the incident and heavy police contingents rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area. Police, including Elite Force officials, launched a massive search operation in the area and arrested 45 suspects, including the main suspect. Talking to reporters, the deceased SHO’s nephew Yaseen said he was with his uncle before the mishap. He said he had requested his uncle to allow him to visit the crime scene when the deceased SHO heard the call but his uncle had told him to go to the police station. SP Cantt Hashmat Kamal said police had arrested more than three dozen accused but did not name the main accused person, saying that it could benefit his accomplices. He said the accused had sent women to attack and other policemen could not respond timely.
Talking to media at the crime scene, DIG Operations Ghulam Mahmood Dogar said that the victim SHO was a respectable person and was not involved in any kind of corruption or patronage of criminals. He said teams would arrest the remaining accused and exemplary punishment would be awarded to the accused. He said a job would be provided to the victim SHO’s son on merit.
