New criminal complaint filed in Karachi after clash in DHA
In Karachi, Pakistan, on September 5, a new criminal complaint was registered in connection with an August clash near an apartment in the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) area. It was filed by a resident of a building in DHA Phase 6, who accused neighbors and police officers of assault, stealing phones, and damaging a CCTV camera, Dawn reports.
Earlier, the first criminal complaint in this case was registered against the woman who was attacked and her brother. An internal inquiry later concluded that the allegations made in that complaint were not substantiated by the investigation results. The report recommended closing the first complaint and taking disciplinary action against the police officers involved.
The complainant's account
According to the complainant, the incident occurred on August 20 at about 11:45 p.m. She was in the apartment with her mother and brother when a police officer rang the doorbell and said that a neighbor was calling them downstairs.
Later, the woman claims, the neighbor came to her door, used abusive language, pulled her hair, took her phone and threw it away. The complainant also said that the neighbor assaulted her mother, then returned with her daughter and several police officers. According to her account, the neighbor's daughter, who was holding a dumbbell, struck family members.
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The complaint states that the family locked themselves inside the apartment and called the police. The complainant also claims that law enforcement officers broke the CCTV camera, while officers from Darakhshan police station forced their way into the residence and took her phone and her brother's phone.
Inquiry findings
CCTV footage that appeared on social media shows a woman with a dumbbell running up the stairs and striking another woman. The video also shows two people in what appears to be police uniform restraining the woman who was attacked. At the end of the recording, a man smashes the camera with an object which, according to the inquiry findings, was handed to him by one of the police officers.
The internal inquiry established that the conflict began over a parking dispute between the mother-in-law of Korangi Senior Superintendent of Police Fida Hussain Janwari and another resident. The report states that several police officers seen in the video had been assigned to duty at Janwari's private residence. The inquiry's authors recommended registering a criminal complaint against his mother-in-law, her daughter and son, as well as against the police officers who were at the scene.
