‘Mentally ill’ man’s killing in Mardan

Cop to be brought to justice if found guilty, KP Assembly told

PESHAWAR: The killing of a mentally ill man by a traffic police constable in Mardan would be properly investigated and the cop would be brought to justice if found guilty, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was told on Wednesday.

Ahmad Khan Bahadur of the Awami National Party (ANP) raised the issue on a point of order and said that a student Bilal Ghani, who was Hafiz Quran, was shot dead by a traffic warden.

It may be mentioned that one Lal Ghani, father of Bilal Ghani, was taking his mentally retarded son to a doctor on a motorcycle when he jumped from it and ran away.In the meanwhile, he pushed a traffic police warden, who in retaliation reportedly fired and shot him dead on the spot.

Ahmad Khan Bahadur, who was elected from Mardan, questioned the performance of Mardan Police and pointed out this was the fourth incident of police excesses.He recalled that earlier on March 2 a man selling cloth on a bicycle was shot dead on the basis of suspicion.

He reminded that an M Phil student was tortured by the officials of the Takht Bhai Police Station on the charges of stealing electricity some time back.  He said the role of police was also suspicious in the Mashal Khan lynching case. The ANP lawmaker demanded that these incidents should be properly investigated and those who were responsible be punished in accordance with the law.

In his reply, Minister for Law Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi condemned the recent incident and said an inquiry should be held into it. He said the killing of the mentally retarded student was very sad, though it could be the result of some misunderstanding. However, he maintained that the issue needed to be probed to know the facts. “I support the holding of an inquiry and the government would definitely investigate the case to dig out the truth,” he said.

On another point of order, Nighat Orakzai of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) pointed out that the education minister had ordered to deduct one day salary of about 40,000 teachers for holding protests for acceptance of their demands.

She recalled that the ruling party’s MPAs and ministers took part in a protest set-in for four months, bringing official work to a halt, but they received their salaries and perks and privileges regularly. She said the minister should at least return his salaries and perks if he wanted to punish the teachers for staging protests for their rights.