Kashmir News Trust #KNT
A family from Central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district Friday alleged that a police officer ‘illegally’ detained 13 of their members including 8 women in the police station over the past five days and the irony is that despite court directions, the said police officer is reluctant to provide them a copy of police report.
The family members of Muhammad Jamal Sofi who hail from Watalbagh Ganderbal stated that: “after a dispute over a piece of land between two brothers, police station Lar Ganderbal arrested their six members. Instead of releasing the arrested persons, SHO Lar detained 13 more members of our family including 8 women,” the family members told Srinagar based news agency Kashmir News Trust.
They said that these arrests were made by police station Khirbhawani on the instructions of SHO Lar. “We were on our way to Beehama Chowk in a truck to protest against the ‘highhandedness’ of SHO Lar. But our truck was stopped near Khirbhawani and 13 persons on board including the driver were arrested. The police seized the truck as well. Eight women were lodged in Saddar Police Station Ganderbal and five men have been detained in police station Khirbhawani,” they said.
The irony is that police have charged 24 people including 8 women for ‘stone-pelting’ and other subversive activities vide FIR numbers 18 and 19 of 2014 under section 138B,147,148,149 RPC.
“We fail to understand when we protested and when we pelted stones and when we disturbed the peace. For the past five days the Station House Officer (SHO) Lar is resorting to dilly dally tactics and not providing us a copy of the police report,” the family members said and identified the arrested persons as Taja Bano, Haseena Ali, Shafiqa Khaliq, Shareefa Rashid, Salima Zahoor, Haseena Bashir, Fatima Banoo, Reyaz Ahmed, Ali Muhammad Bhat, Abdul Hamid, Ishfaq Ahmed Bhat, Abdul Rehman and Farooq Ahmed Sofi.
Despite repeated attempts, SHO Lar did not respond to phone calls, however, a top police official while terming these allegations baseless said that police provided the report in time and furthermore the accused not only assaulted the First Class Magistrate but also pelted stones on a police station.
“There is a land dispute between two brothers while one among them is a complainant who has alleged that his brother wants to grab his land. We acted as per the court directions,” he said. [KNT]
