PESHAWAR: An assistant commissioner in Upper Chitral has been accused of misusing his powers by allegedly detaining a member of the Levies force, putting him in a horse stable for a night after he excused to take care of the official’s personal horse.
The family of the Levies man complained that the assistant commissioner later in the middle of the night raided their house in Booni when the man escaped from the stable.
“The assistant commissioner sent dozens of Levies to our house to capture my cousin. They entered our house without any permission and manhandled and harassed women,” Sanaullah Khan, a member of the family complained.
He said the same official later in the day sent a jirga to them to hush up the issue and warned to make them an example if they informed the media or complained to senior government officials about the incident.
“Now even if the assistant commissioner is dismissed from service now or transferred from Chitral, the wounds he had inflicted on us and our family wouldn’t cure so easily,” Sanaullah Khan told The News from Booni and burst into tears.
The two sides had different versions of the story when this correspondent approached the assistant commissioner and the family members of the Levies man.
According to Sanaullah Khan, the story started from a peaceful conversation between the assistant commissioner and his cousin serving in Levies and was selected for the polo tournament four months ago.
“Polo is a very tough sport and requires a healthy and trained horse and obviously hard practice of the player. My cousin was busy in hectic practices and taking care of his horse when the assistant commissioner, not a polo player, called him and asked him to take care of his horse also,” he explained.
According to Sanaullah, his cousin politely excused and told the assistant commissioner that it would be difficult for him to take care of the two horses simultaneously and then spare them for the practice.
He claimed the assistant commissioner, Shah Adnan, got angry and allegedly used foul language against him.
“The official warned him he would dismiss him from service as he was his commandant. To this, my cousin replied that he was a government servant, not his personal employee which prompted the assistant commissioner who ordered his immediate arrest,” he claimed.
As per his statement, the officer snatched his cell phone and put him in the horse stable for a night and warned him he would not let him participate in the Shandur polo tournament.
During the night, the Levies employee, Ikramul Haq, managed to escape from there.
According to the family member, the official got infuriated when he came to know about his escape from the horse stable. He allegedly sent the Levies force to arrest Ikramul Haq from his home.
“I don’t mind if they had arrested my cousin and put him in the horse stable but the way they entered our house in the middle of the night and mistreated our women has caused us heavy wounds,” Sanaullah Khan complained.
He alleged that the assistant commissioner on Saturday sent a jirga after the media people came to know about the incident and called him for his comments.
“The official warned us of serious consequences if we didn’t resolve the issue. There was no option as my cousin is the only son of his parents and we cannot afford to confront the official” Sanaullah Khan said.
When reached, assistant commissioner Shah Adnan first denied the incident, saying nothing had happened, but when this correspondent reminded him of some of his remarks to the Levies sepoy, he confirmed it but narrated his story differently.
“Actually I fell from a horse while trying to play polo. As I had no experience of the game and was hoping that these Levies men will come and help me,” the assistant commissioner said.
He said sepoy Ikramul Haq was standing there and he saw me falling from the horse but he didn’t bother to come and help him.
“Later, I called him and told him that I am the commandant of the Levies force and you should have rescued me when I was in trouble. He neither excused nor acknowledged his mistake and I put him in the quarter-guard from where he escaped during the night,” the assistant commissioner said.
He denied the claim of the family that the Levies men had manhandled and harassed their women. “Everything is fine as we have resolved the issue through a jirga,” he insisted.
Deputy commissioner Upper Chitral Manzoor Afridi said that he was not aware of any such incident, saying he would investigate and share the details with this correspondent.
He didn’t inform the correspondent about any details of the incident till the filing of this report.