By Mobarik A. Virk

ISLAMABAD: A young boy, Ammar Lasani, was taken hostage in a bizarre incident, was badly thrashed and was eventually saved when the Islamabad Police reacted swiftly and recovered him from the custody of the hostage takers in Bhara Kahu police station jurisdiction.

Ammar Lasani is the younger son of Shakeel Anjum, the ‘Crime Correspondent’ of ‘The News’ and this is not the first time that ‘The News’ staffer has been put under serious mental duress through such tactics.

There had been attacks on his son in the past as well and some unidentified people even opened fire at his residence in Satellite Town area of Rawalpindi.

Shakeel Anjum was even implicated in a triple murder case by an official of the Islamabad Police. However, he was provided relief by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who took suo motu notice of implication of Shakeel Anjum in the triple murder and eventually quashed the case against him.

However, the latest incident in which Shakeel Anjum was again put in the worst form of mental torture came when he learnt that his young son, Ammar Lashani, had gone missing.

It was around 12:30am on the night between Sunday-Monday that he received a call from a friend of his son that Ammar Lasani has been abducted by some people in Bhara Kahu after some people fired on his car and he was dragged out of his vehicle.

The police were immediately informed and Shakeel Anjum himself rushed to Bhara Kahu from where his son’s friend had called and said that he was waiting for help.

The DIG (Operations), Biniamin, on getting information himself rushed to Bhara Kahu to join the Circle In-ccharge, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Liaquat Hayat Niazi, and launched the recovery operation.

The DIG immediately ordered cordoning off the whole area and deployed a contingent of the Islamabad Police Commandos (Elite Force) in addition to the police force from Bhara Kahu police station.

It was around 1:30 am that the Elite Force and the Islamabad Police officials managed to recover Ammar Lasani in an injured condition from a house located on the Simly Dam Road in Bhara Kahu. The house belonged to one Malik Aurangzeb, the father of Malik Ahmed Ali. The DIG (Operations) Biniamin remained present and monitored the whole operation till around 3:00 am, the time by which Ammar Lasani was recovered, was provided medical care and got his statement recorded at the police station.

Ammar Lasani recorded in his statement that he had a dispute of theft of his cellular phone (Nokia E81). He said that on Sunday night around 9:30 Malik Ahmed Ali called him on his cellular phone and asked him to come to his place in Bhara Kahu to settle the dispute of his cellular phone theft.

Ammar Lasani, in his statement, said that he told Malik Ahmed Ali that he will not come to his house but can meet him in the street, to which Malik Ahmed Ali agreed.

As soon as Ammar Lasani, along with one of his friends, reached the spot some people started firing at his vehicle and some bullets hit the rear side of his vehicle.

After the firing some people dashed towards the vehicle, snatched the car keys and dragged Ammar Lasani out of the car and took him inside the house where they started ruthlessly beating him up. He was surrounded by a number of persons holding various types of firearms, ranging from pistols to repeater guns.

They continued to physically torture him till the time the police party barged into the house where he was taken and recovered him in an injured condition.

Later, while filing the ‘First Information Report’, Ammar Lasani, identified the two individuals who fired at his vehicle, snatched his car keys and dragged him out of the vehicle and took him inside the house as Malik Ahmed Ali and his friend. They were helped by at least another dozen of people in the street while some more were inside the house where he was taken. Some of them were identified as Saad Ghous s/o Mohammad Ghous, Umar Ali s/o Iqtidar, Raja Usman s/o Aurangzeb, Masood Farhad s/o Tahir Raheem, Sheikh Haris s/o Lateef Sheikh, Malik Aurangzeb and his brother in addition to many others who were also present in the house or in the street. Many of them were carrying pistols, revolvers or repeater shot guns.

However, after registration of the FIR by Ammar Lasani, the other party also lodged an application in which they alleged that Malik Ahmed Ali was attacked and injured by Ammar Lasani.

Ammar Lasani has moved an application with the District Magistrate of Islamabad to constitute a ‘Medical Board’ because he said that he was a victim and was hardly able to even move an arm when he was overpowered by over a dozen people, all belonging to Malik Ahmed Ali’s group. He submitted in his application to the District Magistrate that the ‘Medical Board’ should examine the wounds because those are self inflicted and were only aimed at providing them a cover against the crime that they had committed.

The DC Islamabad, Aamir Ali Ahmed, has asked the Executive Director of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) to constitute a ‘Medical Board’ to examine Malik Ahmed Ali and ascertain the nature of his injuries as well as determine if those could be self-inflicted.
Source: The News
Date:2/16/2011