SAHIWAL: Dera Rahim police on Wednesday booked 24 persons, including seven unidentified women, for allegedly attacking a police party which attempted to arrest a drug trafficker at 99/9-L village in Chichawatni tehsil.

According to police, a team conducted a raid on a premises at the village after receiving a tip-off that Javed and his accomplices were selling hashish at his outhouse.

The raiding team captured Javed, but as they were shifting him into a police mobile van, a group of village residents, including the suspect’s family members, attacked them.

The police say the attackers resorted to aerial firing, pelted them with stones and hit the policemen with bamboos and sticks for around 40 minutes, freeing the alleged drug seller.

They say the attackers injured two of the policemen, Raza Husnain and Sarfraz, snatching official weapon of the latter, and resorted to aerial firing.The police say the attackers also included women, who allegedly pelted the policemen and police vehicles with stones, smashing the windshields of two mobile vans.

The attackers managed to escape, taking Javed along. The police later booked 24 suspects, including Ikram, Shah Muhammad, Riaz, Shoaib, Zahoor, Shahzad, Asif, Junaid, Murid and Asee.

The police claimed to have recovered 420 grams of hashish from Javed’s pocket, and a drug sample has been sent to for analysis.

The police charged the main suspect, Javed, along with others, under sections324, 395, 440, 506B, 440, 353, 186, 224, 225, 148 and 149, of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), section 7 of Anti Terrorism Act, and Section 9 of The Control of Narcotic Substances Act 1997, on the complaint of Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Muhammad Awais of Chowki Sherain Mor.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2024