Female SHO of Pirabad assailed as crowd gets aggressive for being told not to go to mosque

Although this Friday was the third Friday after the Sindh government imposed the lockdown, many people still insisted on offering the Friday congregational prayers and violated the government’s directives that have restricted the maximum number of worshippers at the mosques to five. A female cop and her team were attacked by a crowd in the Orangi Town area when they tried to stop the Friday congregational prayers.

There are thousands of mosques managed by different schools of thought in Karachi and it is difficult for the police to check whether the government directives are being observed at each mosque. However, in spite of its limited strength, police have been patrolling a large number of areas on Fridays, announcing on loudspeakers that people should remain indoors and offer prayers at home.

A majority of the people is cooperating with the police; however, a few untoward incidents have taken place on the last three consecutive Fridays in which people insisting on offering the Friday prayers at mosques offered resistance to the police.

This Friday, Sharafat Khan, a female police officer who was recently appointed as the station house officer (SHO) of the Pirabad police station, and her team was attacked by scores of people when they visited one of the mosques in the area.

The SHO, intelligence officer ASI Hayat Gul and a constable, Salam, were assailed at the Haqqani Masjid located in the Frontier Colony area of Orangi Town where once banned terrorist outfits including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan had a strong hold.

A video circulated on the social media showed that the female SHO and her team were stopping people from offering Friday prayers at the mosque even after they were attacked by some of them. Heating arguments taking place between the police team and the crowd while the latter were exiting the mosque can also be seen in the video.

“How can you call yourself elders [of the Pashtun community]. I will register FIRs against everyone,” the female SHO can be seen warning the crowd in the video.

Meanwhile, people surrounding her asked her to get into the police mobile vehicle and go back but she continued saying that she would register FIRs against everyone after getting the medical report of the assault.

“Make footage of everyone so that I can identify them easily and arrest them. I have been attacked and my glasses were broken. Pashtuns can't be such shameless. You have attacked an SHO,” said the SHO who belongs to the Pashtun community.

The SHO also asked the constable to charge the crowd with a baton. She also warned that she would seal the mosque.

Meanwhile, residents of the area blamed the female SHO and her team for the violent incident. The police forced the people to offer resistance. “They (police) entered the mosque with wearing shoes and abused the worshippers that compelled them to be aggressive,” said one of the residents. “She [the SHO] abused the elderly man inside the mosque and then the police started charging them with batons.”

Police version

According to a statement issued by the information cell of the West Zone police, the incident took place when the female SHO and her team were ensuring the implementation of the lockdown orders by the Sindh government by telling the people outside the mosque to go home.

The statement alleged that it was then mosque committee president Zareen Khan, general secretary Muhammad Qavi and about 200 to 250 unidentified people attacked her, causing a minor injury in her nose.

However, a large contingent of police later arrived and controlled the situation under the supervision of the SHO. Later, the Pirabad police registered an FIR No 115/20 under multiple sections of the Pakistan Penal Code and the Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

No arrests had been made till Friday night but the police vowed to arrest all those involved in violence.

This was the third consecutive Friday in which the law enforcement agencies, particularly the Karachi police faced resistance as they tried to urge the people to remain indoors and offer prayers at home.

On the first Friday after the lockdown, police arrested the prayer leader of the well-famous Memon Masjid in Kharadar and registered about 50 cases for violations of the government orders.

The situation exacerbated on the second Friday after the lockdown when Liaquatabad SHO Liaquat Hayat and his team had to run for their lives after they faced massive resistance from residents of a locality in Liaquatabad. Apart from that incident, six more FIRs were registered across the city against the prayer leaders and others for violating the government orders.