Lawyers seek action against SDPO for beating colleague

CHITRAL: The District Bar Association (DBA) Chitral announced its decision to observe a strike on Saturday against the Booni police for detaining and beating a senior colleague.

In a statement, the DBA said the subdivisional police officer (SDPO) of Booni took senior lawyer Syed Burhan Shah to his office and beat him up along with his personal bodyguards. The DBA also released a picture of the lawyer with bruises on his left cheek and elbow.

The Peshawar High Court Mingora bench bar association also condemned the incident and demanded legal action against the police.

The statement by the DBA said lawyers in Chitral as well as Booni and Drosh would hold a strike on Saturday and boycott courts against the highhandedness of the police. But the statement did not mention why the senior lawyer was taken into custody and beaten up by the police.

However, ChitralToday learnt from its sources that the incident occurred two days ago at Junalkoch area hours before former governor Gilgit-Baltistan Pir Syed Karam Ali Shah launched a housing scheme in the area.

The sources said there was a dispute over the land between Pir Karam and one of his relatives named Akbar Ali. Pir Karam a few months back invited local people to a luncheon at PTDC Motel Booni and clarified his ownership over the land.

The sources said Akbar Ali had some time ago had sold a piece of land in Junalikoch to Syed Burhan Shah Advocate and Syed Ibrahim Shah, a property dealer, claiming that the land belonged to him.

When Pir Karam was about to inaugurate the housing project two days ago, Burhan Shah and others reached the area and warned the participants of the function to keep away. To avoid any untoward incident, the organizers called the police who reached the spot and took the senior lawyer away along with the property dealer and another man.

The senior lawyer along with others later obtained bail and informed his colleagues that the SDPO physically and mentally tortured him.