DPO explains police torture on women in Chiniot

FAISALABAD: District Police Officer Chiniot on Saturday explained the incident of police torture on women in Chiniot.

He said that Muhammad Anwar alias Dogri son of Dogri caste Oodh resident of Chak No.129-JB along with his accomplices opened fire at police constables Ghulam Abbas (274/c-I), Munawwar Husain (1120-c) and Shahid Husain (1060-c) on 04-10-2011 at that time when the police officials were on their patrolling duty on motorcycle in the area of Sadar Chiniot police station.

The police constables also returned fire in self-defense,but Muhammad Anwar alias Dogri Oodh was injured with the bullet of his own accomplices and he was shifted to Allied Hospital Faisalabad.

A case was registered against the accused vide FIR No.413/11 with Police Station Chiniot Sadar under sections 324, 353, 148 and 149 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on 04-10-11. Muhammad Anwar alias Dogari expired today in the Allied Hospital after receiving medical treatment for 4 days. He was involved in three dacoity incidents.

The DPO said in a statement that the Sadar Chiniot police handed over the body of the accused to his relatives for burial after getting his postmortem conducted at Civil Hospital Chiniot by carrying it from Allied Hospital Faisalabad.

But the relatives of the accused including Maqboolan Bibi widow of Faqeer Muhammad caste Oodh resident of Chak No.129-JB, Parveen wife of Mushtaq, daughter of Anwar caste Khokhar resident of makeshift house, wife of accused Dogri resident of Chak No.129-JB, Bano wife of Siddique caste Oodh resident of Chak No.129-JB and 8-10 other persons started blackmailing the police instead of burying the body and created harassment by blocking road at Tehsil Chowk by putting dead body there. When the police prohibited them to do so, the protesters started pelting stones on police and other vehicles. They also pelted stones at DPO Office and damaged its main gate a little.

The local police rushed to the spot and tried to convince the protesters in a very sympatric manner that they should call off their protest because action would be taken against all those persons who will be responsible for wrong doing in the death of accused.

A team of senior police officers including DSP Investigation Chiniot, DSP/SDPO City Circle, SHO Sadar police station, SHO City Police Station and Sub Inspector (SI) Zulfiqar Ali will supervise the inquiry for which directives have also been issued that the inquiry report of Dogri killing would be submitted at the earliest before the high-ups. The team will finalize its report after thoroughly examining the whole episode of the incident.

The statement further told that the protestors were from the family of notorious accused Dogri who was involved in 14 criminal cases and killed sometime ago while the Punjab government had fixed his head money.

All members of this family were involved in a (Rs.150 million) heist occurred in the house of Ameer Abbas news caster Express News on 05-10-10 and the police registered a case vide FIR No.545 under section 395 with the Bhowana police station and they are also wanted to the police of Toba Tek Singh, Jhang, Faisalabad and other districts.

The statement said that male members of this family are experiencing imprisonment while females are pursuing their cases and they staged a drama before the media to save their proclaimed offenders from the police. They also blocked the road to pressurize the police and showed them innocent in the eyes of people through media.

The female protestors also pelted stones at police and other private vehicles so that they could prove themselves innocent when the police was busy in controlling traffic.

The DPO said that the police tried its best to disperse the protesters peacefully. The police also have footage of this attempt to disperse the protestors peacefully. The footage showed the male and female protesters violating law by pelting stones at people, police and DOP Office.

There was not option for the police but to control the protesters and maintain law and order situation forcefully. We have arranged lady police to avoid maximum damage; the statement said and added that the lady police arrested 4 women who blocked the road by protesting on it.

The police did not take any action in a cruel manner but all the efforts were made according to the law and only for maintaining law and order situation in the area, the statement added.