Punjab cops run amok in Islamabad
By By Shakeel Anjum
ISLAMABAD: Thousands of personnel of the Punjab Constabulary (PC), borrowed by the Capital Police to maintain order in the metropolis, went on the rampage and ransacked several shops in the Aabpara market to protest the death of one of their colleagues, who died on Tuesday reportedly due to non-availability of timely medical attention.
The Islamabad Police have registered a case against SP (PC) Ashraf Gujjar and Inspector in-charge Muhammad Ilyasunder under Section 316 PPC (Qatl-e-Shabih-e-Amd).As part of the rare protest, they blocked the Khayaban-e-Suhrawardy and Aabpara Chowk for more than six hours. Their superiors and Islamabad Police bosses were at their wits end to calm down the agitators.
Through their protest, the PC personnel expressed their deep anguish and resentment against their high command and the Islamabad Police for keeping them in inhuman conditions for the past many months since the judicial crisis hit the country.
Two cops of the Capital Police and one PC constable sustained injuries in the fracas.The deceased, Imam Bux, a constable, hailing from Khushab, was brought to Islamabad from Faisalabad (platoon four) on June 1 for temporary duty as part of the PC’s heavy deployment in the capital. He was ill before he came here. He had been requesting for medical leave but his boss, SP Ashraf Gujjar and Inspector in-charge Muhammad Alyas, did not grant him leave.
When he was shifted to Islamabad, he continued applying for leave, which was not granted. His colleagues found him dead at his cot in the stopgap resident camp of G-6 flats of the Capital Development Authority (CDA). He had profusely vomited blood before his death.
Improper medical aid, insufficient and unhygienic food, contaminated drinking water and inhuman quartering caused his death, a medical doctor said on condition of anonymity.The protesting personnel came out of their camp residence with the dead body at about 8 a.m. and blocked the main Khayaban-e-Suhrawardy Road in front of their apartments.
They later marched towards Aabpara Chowk at about 10.30 a.m. and blocked the traffic by erecting hurdles. The angry personnel, later, entered the market and ransacked seven shops, including a travelling agency.
Meanwhile, a group of PC personnel attacked Hashmat Ali (6362), an Islamabad Police official, attached with the Special Branch, who was taking snaps of the agitating personnel and thrashed him badly and broke his bones. The victim was shifted to the Poly Clinic in critical condition. While, Asghar Ali Babar (Islamabad Police) and Fayyaz Ahmad (PC) also sustained injuries.
The Islamabad administration remained a silent spectator and did not play any role to pacify the protesters. However, City Police Officer (CPO) Syed Moravet Ali Shah reached the scene as representative of Inspector General of the Punjab Police and pacified the protesting force by announcing that the PC was being sent back to their relevant platoons and declared Rs 1.5 million compensation to the heirs of the deceased cop and 10-day leave to each official after reporting back to his platoon.
Imam Bux, 25, belonging to Noorpur Thal, district Khushab, joined the Punjab Police on June 1, 2006 and was transferred to PC. He was bachelor and had been ill for the last couple of months.
His health deteriorated quickly after he, along with the Punjab Police Reserve (PPR), and the Punjab Constabulary (PC) was shifted to Islamabad. This deterioration was attributed to squalid living conditions, unhygienic food and contaminated drinking water, and inhuman treatment meted out to them by the authorities of the Capital Police. It was alleged that the situation was a result of bad planning by the Chief Commissioner and Inspector General of Police Islamabad.
To me it looks like official trying to buy their way out of yet another corruption and incompetency scandal. What a waste of human life.