Two lawyers were discharged from a case after Kahna police produced them before a magistrate on Wednesday. Earlier, the Operations DIG received an assurance by the Lahore Bar Association that lawyers would not beat up the police officials who had arrested the two lawyers. The lawyers had allegedly injured a constable and snatched guns from policemen.
Kahna police had received a tip that some people were taking bets on the cricket match between Pakistan and West Indies. When a team raided the place several men, including two lawyers, attacked the police officials. They injured Head Constable Rashid Ali and detained him. More police officials were then called and arrested the offenders.
The following day when other lawyers learnt that police had arrested two of their colleagues and that they were beaten up at the police station, many of them arrived at the Model Town courts and waited for the police officials concerned. Police received information that they planned to beat up policemen appearing in the court. The information was relayed to heir superiors.
Representatives of the Lahore Bar Association later assured the Operations DIG and District and Sessions Judge Syed Hamid Hussain Shah that lawyers would not beat up police officials if their colleagues were produced before the court. More than a hundred police officials were posted to maintain law and order on the occasion.
When the suspects were produced in court, two lawyers were discharged while the other suspects were sent on two days physical remand.
Kahna police had registered a case against the suspects under sections 186, 353, 365, 324, 395, 342, 148, 149 and 5/7/78 of Gambling Act.
LBA General Secretary Saleem Ladhi confirmed that the LBA had assured the Operations DIG that no lawyer would attack police. He also said police had misbehaved with the lawyers and implicated them in a false case. He said the LBA would observe a strike on April 3 (today) against the Kahna police.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 3rd, 2014.