Cops make shopkeeper’s life miserable

LAHORE:The life of a small paan shop owner has been made miserable by the cops of Harbanspura police, including two Dolphin officials.

The cops usually reach the shop of Tahir Nadeem at Javed Colony, Hassanabad and take away goods, including cigarettes and cold drinks, without paying a single penny. Tahir never dares to demand money from them to avoid facing their wrath. While giving details to this scribe, the shopkeeper, Tahir Nadeem, said two cops, Altaf and Mudassar, posted at Harbanspura police station used to take away goods from his shop free of cost. Both cops are not coming to his shop nowadays probably due to their transfer. Then two officials of Dolhin Squad, Zeeshan and Azhar, started visiting his shop and they took cigarettes and cold drinks free of cost. They visited his shop last time almost a month back. And now Imran, a recently posted cop at Harbanspura police station, has made his life a hell. The cop, Imran, along with two officials took away Tahir on the pretext of selling Gutka almost a week back and started roaming around the area for hours. They let him go after receiving Rs 2,000 bribe. The shopkeeper said he sold neither open cigarettes nor any other item that came under the domain of illegal act. He told that if anyone was caught in front of his shop, the cops also implicated him in the matter though he had nothing to do with it. He called the aforementioned cops as extortionists in police uniform. He said, “I am now tired and have only two options either to close my shop or continue accommodating the extortionists in police uniform.” The matter was brought into the notice of Harbanspura SHO to look into the matter and inform the supervisory officers about the black sheep in police uniform.

It is pertinent to mention that many officials of Dolphin Squad are allegedly as corrupt as the officials or officer serving in local police stations and PRU.

Ironically, the field and the supervisory officers in Lahore are not mentally prepared and ready to follow the directions of Inspector General of Police, Punjab, Shoaib Dastgir who said a day back that it was indispensable to further improve the working of police stations and all officers should closely supervise the working of police stations through close monitoring, effective supervision and inspection and address the issues of public by ensuring judicious implementation of law on a priority basis.

The IG has been calling for no leniency for those who show slackness and negligence and use delaying tactics in solving the issues of citizens at police stations, but to no avail as far as the Lahore police are concerned.

When contacted, SP Cantt Furqan Bilal said that he would personally look into the matter and take stern action against the black sheep in police uniform.