LAHORE: The personnel belonging to the Punjab police special branch allegedly misbehaved with and stole Rs10,000 (Indian currency) and valuables from the luggage of an Indian journalist’s family at the Lahore-Delhi bus service terminal in Gulberg.

According to Pakistan-based Indian journalist Rezaul Hasan, the incident took place on Monday last when his parents, wife and sister arrived at the bus terminal to leave for New Delhi.

“At the bus terminal, a special branch official opened the bag and strew their contents all over, with only about 15 minutes left to board the bus,” he said.

“A woman official of the special branch frisked my mother, my sister and wife and stole several pieces of jewellery the ladies were wearing. Several pairs of earrings and Rs10,000 in cash (Indian) were missing when they opened their purses at Attari.”

“The woman official of the special branch also forced my sister to ‘gift’ her a bottle of sunscreen lotion.

“I and my family have been living in Pakistan for the last two-and-a-half years and it was the first incident of its kind. It has saddened us. Even after the Mumbai attacks when there was so much tension between the two countries, people here were very friendly with us and would readily extend all kind of help,” he said.

A senior official of the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation told Dawn he had received a number of such complaints against the special branch personnel and had asked their relevant senior police official to depute some ‘reasonable’ officials at the bus terminal.

Special branch SSP Iftikharul Haq said he had ordered an inquiry into such incidents and would not spare anyone found involved.
Source: Dawn
Date:5/20/2010