Hayatabad residents complain of harassment

PESHAWAR: A political activist and residents in Hayatabad locality in the provincial capital have accused the police of harassment during a search operation carried out at night.

Tariq Khan, the information secretary of the Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), told The News that the cops knocked at his door at 2.30 am during the night between Thursday and Friday and demanded that they wanted to search his house. “I cooperated with them and let them search my house even though I objected that this was no time searching houses of law-abiding citizens and that too without search warrant,” he recalled.

According to Tariq Khan, his neighbours and other residents in Sector K-4 in Hayatabad Phase 3 also complained later that they too were woken up at night by the cops and their houses were searched. He said about 320 houses were searched that night. “Two lady cops accompanied the policemen, some of them in civvies, when my house was searched, but others residents told me that their houses were searched by male cops only,” he added.

Tariq Khan argued that their houses were searched not on the basis of any information about the presence of suspects. He said it was a general search operation undertaken at random. He sought a probe into the matter.