Police fail to arrest killers

LAHORE
BAHAWALNAGAR Police has badly failed to arrest the accused persons involved in a double-murder case despite the passing of about two years due to the reasons best known to DPO of the district.
The victim family said police were patronising the accused persons for certain reasons. They alleged that whenever they informed the police about the presence of accused persons, police reached very late and some policeman informed the culprits so they could easily escape.
The victim family has been running from pillar to post for seeking justice but in vain.
The grieved father said he had lost all hope in the institutions. Only the rich and powerful could get justice in this country, he said. He alleged that the police were acting as a puppet of the influential people of the area, they would take bribe from the criminals instead of taking action against them.
The accused persons Riaz Bhatti and one of his accomplices had killed two persons identified as Muhammad Mazhar and Zakir Hussain on October 17, 2013. Police registered a case against the accused persons, including Riaz Bhatti, Muhammad Altaf Ahmad, Hafiz Mushtaq Ahmad and one unknown person on the complaint of Ahmad Bakhsh, father of the deceased Mazhar.
On July 1, 2009, Iqbal Bhatti, the brother of the accused person Riaz Bhatti was murdered allegedly by the victim Mazhar and others. A case was registered against Mazhar and others.
On October 17, 2013, Mazhar and Zakir were sitting at a shop. The accused person, Riaz Bhatti came along with his accomplice to take revenge of the murder of his brother and shot them dead.
The complainant told The News that he had refused to initiate any legal action on the day of the incident. But DSP, SHO of the area came to him at that time, assured him of justice and convinced him for post-mortem. But now police were not paying any heed to their case. He said he was a poor man and had begged to everyone he thought could provide him justice but now he was tired. Expressing his frustration he said that if the police and court did not provide him justice he or his posterity would have to take the law into their own hands to revenge the killing of his innocent son.
He said the accused persons who had been declared proclaimed offenders kept visiting their village without any fear of police. They informed the police about their presence many a time but police did not arrest them. He alleged that Riaz Bhatti would pay Rs50,000 to the SHO for not arresting him. On a question about his source of income, he alleged Bhatti was a dacoit, his two brothers worked in Saudi Arabia. He said he had a lot of money to feed the influential people of the area and police.
Investigation Officer Muhammad Aslam on the issue said they had raided many times to arrest the accused persons but failed. On a question about the allegations of deliberate inaction, being influenced and taking bribes from the accused persons, he said the allegations were baseless. He said the accused person was a proclaimed offender and they were taking every possible step to arrest him and hoped to arrest him very soon.
Ghulam Murtaza, SHO of the area said that the murder was a result of old enmity and infighting between two parties of the village for gaining influence. He said both the parties had been proclaimed offenders. They have taken every possible step to arrest the accused persons, he said.
He expressed his reservations and said this was a locality of Kacha, on the bank of River Sutlej. The precincts and limit of the police station fell on both sides of the river and the criminals would find hideouts easily, he said, adding that police were fully cooperating with the grieved parties and would raid whenever there was information about the accused persons. About the efforts of the complainant and applications to different authorities, he said the complainant was doing this just to build a pressure as he wanted blood money from the offender party. Efforts were made to talk to DPO Bahawalnagar but he was not available. —Muhammad Shahzad