Two city police officers have been suspended for releasing a leader of a proscribed outfit who was caught overnight but released after a civil judge granted him bail yesterday.
In a late night move, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ordered the suspension of Senior Superintendent of Islamabad Police Asmatullah Junejo and another officer for showing leniency to the activist of a religious outfit arrested on charges of displaying weapons.
According to a government’s spokesman, the prime minister ordered the action against the police officers to make them an example for other officers of the police and law enforcement agencies particularly at a time when the country was faced with menace of terrorism.
A capital police press statement said that Mufti Tanveer Alam Farooqui of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) – a reincarnation of the banned Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan sectarian group – was caught with his bodyguards for carrying arms but all were charged lightly by the police.
IGP Tahir Alam Khan and Assistant Inspector General of Police Operation Dr Sultan Azam Temuri are inquiring into the matter.
It should be noted that SSP Junejo suspended as punishment for the release was the officer who stood by the government in its confrontation with the PTI and Pakistan Awami Tehrik agitators outside the parliament last September when his seniors chose to cool their heels. He was badly beaten, bloodied and hospitalised when he resisted the charge of the agitators on the federal secretariat.
