Breaking into people’s homes in Defence Housing Authority (DHA) precincts, without warrants or prior notice, has become a routine for Lahore’s police intoxicated with unbridled powers. The residents of the area are left with no choice but to protest against police’s blatant transgressions, misuse of authority and torture, both physical and psychological.
On the night of April 29, police from Defence C Police Station stormed into Qasim Durrani’s house in DHA, Phase 6 and took eight people, including two women, forcibly into custody and filed an FIR against them under Section 294 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) which deals with obscene acts in public, despite having found no contraband, drugs or alcohol from either those arrested or the house. When Qasim inquired as to why SHO Sagheer Ahmad Metla and Sub-inspector Sohaib Ahmad were harassing them when they had done nothing wrong, instead of giving them any reason they manhandled the owner of the house and family guests and forcibly bundled them in police vehicles and took them to a police station.
It is interesting to note here that Section 294 of PPC applies to acts committed in public, and since offences under the Hudood Ordinance were made non-cognizable and no woman could be arrested without court permission, police have found a workaround by applying Section 294 of PPC even to people they arrest from their own houses.
Awais Ahmad, another resident of DHA, says that police have made it a habit of breaking into people’s homes, stealing valuables and harassing residents. He added that police officials file FIRs against innocent people and present exaggerated reports of their performance to their seniors by claiming that the individuals involved indulged in unlawful activities. He lamented that the chief minister has miserably failed in providing security to the people despite his tall claims, and that the police that he boasts to have revolutionised is, in fact, infringing upon people’s right to privacy at their homes, the last place people should feel safe at. He appealed to the government to appoint an honest police officer to the area so that they could be saved from unlawful policing.
Qasim Durrani pleaded his case with the media by saying that he is a hardworking businessman who is repeatedly being harassed by police. He has a software house and is an honest tax-payer. He says that the police are biased against him because he refuses to bribe them. He says former SHO of Defence C Police Station Ikram Gujjar also used to harass him with the help of SP Defence Circle Rana Tahir. Qasim thinks since he is a businessman, one of his competitors might have bought off some police officials for the sole purpose of making his life harder.
The businessman insisted that this latest action against him was a sheer police gardi as all he did was host a little get together for family and friends. As his guests which included doctors and architects, were leaving his house, the police reached there and arrested them without even telling them as to why they were being subjected to such tactics.
When contacted, SHO Sagheer Metla disconnected the call abruptly and subsequently turned his phone off.
In another instance of police gardi in DHA, Phase 6, the same phase Qasim resides in, as many as 16 people were arrested by police that raided a ‘rasm-e-hina’, a popular wedding event most families celebrate in their homes with traditional wedding music and dance. The police filed a cased against those arrested under the Amplifier Act.
The police raided the house of Qaiser Raza and arrested 16. Those arrested were Qaiser Niaz, Noor Burhan, Saqib Bashir, Danyal, Habeeb Allah, Fauzia, Maryam, Maria, Irim, Waheeda, Asma and others. The police took their mobile phones and other valuables worth hundreds of thousands of rupees into custody.
Their story is not different from that of Qasim’s. The same SHO and SI demanded a bribe of Rs 200,000 from those arrested to let them go. When they refused to pay, they booked them under the Amplifier Act as well.
One wonders if one is safe from these ‘police gards’ even in their homes, and for as simple and innocuous a thing as a family get together or a wedding ceremony.
The victims of these horrific incidents demand justice and request CM Shehbaz Sharif to launch an inquiry into why police are acting beyond their mandate and why they have made it a purpose of their existence to harass peaceful citizens of the city.
