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IG reacts to senior policemen’s involvement in criminal case

Staff Report

LAHORE: Police Inspector General (IG) Ziaul Hassan Khan has taken serious notice of the involvement senior police officers’ involvement in a criminal case and has ordered that the case be investigated without bias, sources in Central Police Office (CPO) told Daily Times on Saturday.

Two groups of senior policemen deployed in Lahore were supporting the complainants and the accused in a criminal case filed at Defence police station, a source said, apparently to “settle scores with each other”.

The IG had directed City Police Chief (CPC) Additional IG Khawaja Khalid Farooq to ensure that the case was investigated “on merit”, he said.

Sources in the CPO said the IG met the CPC at his office at about 2pm on Saturday and they discussed the issue during “the routine meeting”. The meeting ended at 3pm but the CPC did not leave the CPO until 4:30, they said, because he was holding “courtesy meetings” with several senior officials.

The case dates back to November 26, when Waseem Sajjad Malik, a cellular phone-company employee (resident of 292/293-B, Punjab Corporative Society), lost control of his car and hit a tree allegedly because of two racing cars near Masjid Chowk in Defence. One of the two cars (LWJ-700) belonged to Faisal Farooq, son of a prominent confectioner.

Waseem’s two-month old baby, born five years after his marriage, went through the screen and fell about 20 feet away. Waseem, his mother and his wife were injured.

Waseem’s baby went into a comma right away. Passers-by caught Faisal Farooq, who fled when he saw that they were calling the police. The victims were admitted to hospital with multiple fractures and the baby died shortly after that. Defence police registered a case against Faisal Farooq.

Faisal Farooq’s family, close to senior police officers, intervened. Allegedly, Faisal Farooq, his uncles Mehmood and Maqsud, and five people carrying weapons went to the National Defence Hospital on November 29, where they threatened Waseem’s brother-in-law Mutahir and asked him to withdraw the case. They locked Mutahir in a room, allegedly, beat him up, and fled.

Senior policemen then directed the Defence ASP to make sure another case was not registered, but another group of police officers also intervened and got a case registered.

A large number of people have received SMS messages on their mobile phones asking them to boycott the products of the confectionary chain owned by Faisal’s father.

“Faisal Farooq, son of [the owner of a confectionary] hit a car while racing, killing a baby and injuring a family,” the message read. “Faisal and a squad of gunmen then threatened the family,” it says, “that if a case was registered, he would kill the rest of the family.” The SMS requested the readers to boycott the confectionary responding to the demand of “the soul of an innocent infant and the tears of his parents”.

Officials of the cellular phone company in which Wasim worked denied that they were involved in circulating the SMS. “How can we stop people from sending messages to each other on the subject?” the public relations manager said. People were free to SMS anybody they wanted, he said, and the company had not initiated the campaign. Police spokesman declined to speak on the issue and the CPC was not available for comment.

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