LARKANA: A desperate policeman attempted to immolate himself at his house in Luhar Colony on Friday to get rid of a moneylender from whom he had obtained a loan on prohibitively high interest rate five years ago.

The policeman Gulzar Ali Mugheri, father of four children, told journalists at the accident and emergency unit of Chandka Medical College Hospital where he was admitted with 40 per cent burns that he was left with no other recourse to rid himself of the mental tortures being inflicted on him by the private moneylender, Waheed Shahani.

He said that he had obtained from him Rs500,000 loan on prohibitively high interest in 2018. Since then he had paid him around Rs1.5 million but the interest amount refused to go, he said. “He has my ATM card through which he regularly draws my salary from my account,” he alleged, adding that a number of policemen were also aiding and abetting the moneylender to keep him mentally disturbed.

He appealed to Sindh IGP and Larkana DIG to save him from the money-lending gang and demanded action against all such groups involved in the business of lending on high interest.

Larkana DIG Nasir Aftab Pathan took notice of the incident and ordered probe into the circumstances leading to the cop’s self-immolation attempt. The facts would very soon be unveiled, said the DIG’s spokesman.

The policeman was presently receiving treatment at the casualty ward since Chandka Medical College Hospital had no independent burns ward.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2024