Misri Shah traders protest against ex-cop

LAHORE
Traders of Iron Market, Misri Shah, protested against a retired Inspector of Punjab Police and demanded justice from the police high-ups during a press conference held at the Lahore Press Club on Saturday.
They threatened to set themselves ablaze on not getting addressed their problems.
Sheikh Iqbal, Haji Sharafat Hameed, Hafiz Ghulam Murtaza, Haji Bashir Afzal, Chaudhry Basit Amir Hussain, Ashfaq Butt, Mohsin Kashif, Haji Ijaz Gujjar, and others alleged that Inspector (r) Sharif Bhatti of Punjab Police and his sons Mohsin Sharif Bhatti, Yasir Sharif Bhatti, and others, were running a business of steel furnace and buying scrap to defraud traders. They alleged that they had looted Rs. 130, 000,000 from them and had been threatening them with dire consequences for the last five years. There are many other people too who are their victims, they added. They further said that Sharif Bhatti and his sons would get fake cases registered against them on demand of money.
The victims told the media that they lodged an application with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) which arrested the accused. The accused admitted before the NAB that they owed money to the victims. They said their case was pending at a NAB court. His one son Mohsin Bhatti is behind the bars and another is at large, they added.
They said the inspector was hurling life threats at them and their families. His touts, Arfan, Munawar, and others harass the complainants.
They alleged that Mohisn Bhatti owed Rs. 4 to 5 crore as electricity bills to banks. They are tax evaders too, they said.
They appealed to the president of Pakistan, prime minister, chief minister Punjab, governor Punjab, Chairman NAB, DG NAB, and IG Punjab Police to investigate the illegal money he earned through misuse of authority. They said he was inducted as a constable and now owned huge property. Fromwhere he got all this money, they asked. They further said the inspector was involved in the land grabbing too.
They threatened the authorities concerned with setting up a hunger camp in front of the Punjab Assembly if the retired inspector kept on harassing them with impunity.