People protest in Pakistan's KP against police action during Kabaddi match
Jul 31, 2022
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [Pakistan], July 31 : Hundreds of people blocked the road in Lakki city to protest against the police for disrupting a sports event in a village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan, according to local media.
Residents of Mela Shahabkhel, Langerkhel, and other villages marched to Qazi Ishfaq Chowk and staged a sit-in there, led by village council chairman Naimatullah Khan and other prominent people, Dawn newspaper reported on Saturday.
The protesters said that police disrupted a kabaddi match on Friday by resorting to firing in the air to the crowd and arrested the event organisers. They also condemned the brazen action and said there was no justification to raid the playground and disrupt the game.
"Mela Shahabkhel village has a good reputation with regard to organising sports events, especially kabaddi matches, but unjustified action by the police badly tarnished it," Asif Iqbal Advocate said as quoted by Dawn.
Quoting district police officer Ziauddin Ahmad, Dawn newspaper reported that the police were not against the promotion of games, but after receiving credible information that proclaimed offenders and armed men would come to the venue, cops were sent to the locality to convince organisers to wind up the activity for the safety of villagers. He said the police had also received a threat alert of a subversive act by miscreants.
"The organisers offered resistance and some people also hooted at the police and pelted stones on cops, leaving them with no option but to resort to firing in the air," he maintained.
Meanwhile, scores of people vandalised a police station in Multan city in Pakistan's Punjab province to protest against the killing of a man and the injury of another person in an encounter.
As per police, the officers were on a routine check when they signalled a car to pull over in the Choti Jhok Alpa police area but the riders sped away. The police chased the car and opened fire, leaving riders Faheem and Azam injured while two other riders fled, Dawn reported
Pakistan police have been accused of launching fake encounters and targeted killings in the country over the past several months.
