Bahawalnagar Police Incident shocks Punjab police and system

It has been announced by the Pakistan Army and the Punjab Police that a transparent and joint investigation will be conducted into the incident that took place at a police station in Bahawalnagar, Punjab province of Pakistan, to bring out the real facts and ensure the rule of law. Those responsible for violations and misuse of powers can be identified.

These statements by the Public Relations Department of Pakistan Army (ISPR) and Inspector General (IG) of Punjab Police, Dr. Usman Anwar, have come out at a time when several such videos have been circulating on social media in Pakistan for the past two days in which police personnel can be seen being subjected to torture by military personnel.

Because of these videos, social media has also seen severe criticism of the Pakistani Army and the Punjab Police. In these videos, some police officers are seen sitting locked in a house, and some police officers in military uniform are torturing the policemen. ISPR says,

“Recently a tragic incident took place in Bahawalnagar which was quickly resolved through the combined efforts of the army and police. But despite this, toxic propaganda was spread on social media by a few groups with nefarious intentions to create division between state institutions and government departments.”

When and how did the violence occur?

“Whatever we did, we did for the department. The whole of Pakistan saw what happened after that, now I don’t even want to do police job.”

These are the words of a Punjab Police official who was present at ‘Division A’ police station in Bahawalnagar district on Wednesday when, according to him, uniformed soldiers and Rangers personnel allegedly stormed his police station.

Speaking to the BBC on condition of anonymity, the official disclosed the details of the incident and claimed that he was injured during the violence by the ‘uniformed men’ after which he received medical treatement. He was taken to the respective hospital.

According to the police officials present at the spot, Pakistani Army and Rangers personnel entered the official vehicles outside the ‘Site Division A’ police station in Bahawalnagar district of Punjab on Wednesday after 12:00.

Another police officer who was present at Bahawalnagar Police Station Division A on April 10 told BBC Urdu on condition of anonymity that he reached the police station seven to eight minutes after the Rangers and Army personnel arrived at the police station and at that time Rangers and army vehicles were there.

He claimed that the rangers and army personnel broke the cameras installed around the police station and also seized the DVRs.

Two officials present in this police station of Bahawalnagar have claimed that the military personnel not only ransacked the Police Station Division A but also the suspended policemen SHO Rizwan Abbas, ASI Muhammad Naeem, Constables who were already under remand. He also did the ‘worst torture’ on Muhammad Iqbal and Ali Raza.

The complete details of this entire incident have not been made public by the Punjab Police till now, but in a message posted on social media, it was definitely said that ‘the minor incident that took place in Bahawalnagar has been given context on social media. It was presented out of context and exaggerated. An attempt was made to create a false impression that there was a confrontation between the Pakistan Army and the Punjab Police.

After this message, the Punjab Police also shared a video on ‘X’ in which Punjab Police and Army personnel were seen shouting slogans of ‘Pak Fauj Zindabad’ and ‘Punjab Police Zindabad’.

In this report, BBC has tried to find out what were the circumstances that led to the incident. In this regard, the BBC has spoken to the police officers involved in this incident and the Chief of Punjab Police.
What caused this issue?

According to the two FIRs available to the BBC and the statements of the police officers of the respective police station, the whole incident started on April 8.

According to the FIRs, on April 8, the police tried to stop two suspicious persons on the ‘Chak Sarkari Road’ but they did not stop. Meanwhile, the police managed to arrest one of them, Muhammad Irfan, from whom a 30-bore pistol was recovered.

According to the statement of the police official recorded in the FIR, the arrested accused identified his accomplice by the name of Farwaqat and also gave his address.

When the police reached the address, the accused present there called his brothers and family, on whose behalf the policemen were tortured and they were also confined in the house. According to the FIR, additional police force was called to free the hostages, including the station house officer (SHO), and three more persons, Muhammad Idris, Khalil and their father Anwar, were arrested. .

All of them were booked on the charge of interfering with the government.

Bahawalnagar police officials have claimed that one of the arrested persons was a serving Pakistani army officer.