August 1, 2022
By Rehan Piracha
LAHORE: The Jhang police have arrested three people in connection with a gruesome attack on a constable who was accused of coercing a married woman and then leaking her intimate videos on social media.
According to police, 12 people, including two unidenftied persons, cut off the nose, both ears and a lip of Constable Qasim Hayat, in the name of ‘honour’ in Jhang’s Sajhowal area within the jurisdiction of the Masan police station on July 30.
“Police have arrested three in the case while seven others are on protective bail,” Zulfiqar Ali, station house officer of Masan police station, told Voicepk. Qasim Hayat is a constable posted at the Kot Shakir Police Station. Masan police had registered a case against 12 people under sections 324,109,148 and 149 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
He said the suspects had carried out the attack to avenge the police official’s alleged illicit relations with a woman – a mother of one of the accused. “The injured police official is in a stable condition and admitted to the district headquarters hospital in Jhang,” SHO Zulfiqar Ali said. He said the constable and the attackers were neighbours and lived in the same village.
According to complainant Tahir Imran, a cousin of Qasim Hayat, the assailants suspected Qasim of having illicit relations with a woman of their clan. The accused attacked Qasim Hayat and chopped his body parts off, Tahir Imran told police.
On July 16, Aftab Ahmed, also a police constable, had lodged a case against Qasim Hayat in Masan police station, accusing his neighbour and fellow cop of coercing her mother to have illicit relations by threatening to kill her son. In the first information report (FIR), Aftab Ahmed said when her mother met Qasim Hayat to convince him to change his views, he forced himself on her. “Qasim Hayat made a video and extorted Rs150,000 from her through blackmail on different occasions,” Aftab Ahmed told police in the FIR, adding that the accused cop later leaked her video on social media.
SHO Zulfiqar Ali said Qasim Hayat was on bail in the case registered under Section 354 relating to offense of assault on woman, Section 384 relating to extortion and Section 292 relating to pornography of the Pakistan Penal Code. He said the arrested suspects would be produced before a court for remand after completion of initial interrogation.