Daily Times

LAHORE: One of Walled City of Lahore’s most famous restaurants Cooco’s Den’s owner who is a professor at National College of Arts Iqbal Hussain was locked inside his house by his relatives while half of his family members spent the whole night and day sitting outside the house as police had threatened them not to try opening the locks.

The police also tried pressurising the victims to remain silent and not to create problems for Iqbal Hussain’s nephews.

Professor Iqbal posted a status on his Facebook account explaining how his nephews had locked him inside the house while his wife, two daughter and grand daughters were sitting outside the house. He also told that when he called 15, the police officials came but took no action. However when his daughter called Dolphin Force then she approached the Tibbi City Police Station where the police official misbehaved with her.

According to his Facebook post, “My nephews locked me, my two daughters and my grand daughters inside our house. I can’t go out and nobody can come in, except my nephews. They are downstairs. They locked us in. God knows what will happen to me and my children. My daughters and my wife came back from their uncle’s house. My nephews locked our doors from the outside. My wife and my two daughters were standing outside for five hours in the morning until 7am.”

Professor Iqbal further wrote, “I called the police station as well but no one took action. I called everyone from police links. But nobody picked up my call.”

Professor Iqbal went on saying that his wife and daughter even went to Tibbi Police Station but the same police official who had come at night asked her to stop calling at 15. According to Professor Iqbal’s post, the police official replied, “Who asked you to called on 15? Stop calling on 15. We are not free. Come tomorrow.” My wife said that my daughters and my husband are locked inside. Please do something. That officer told her to “Get lost.”

He also held his nephews responsible if anything happens to him and his family.

Talking to Daily Times, his daughter Mariam Iqbal Hussain told that she was with her mother at night and when she returned home at 3am, she and other family members saw that the house which is located in the same building where Cooco’s Den is located, was locked from outside. She further told that her brother called 15. The police came but asked them not to break the locks otherwise they would have to face the consequences.

Mariam further informed that she went to the police station along wit the Dolphin personnel, the sleeping official instructed her rudely to not call 15 as they have many more things to do.

“He shouted and told me that when I have asked you to come in the evening, then why are you still disturbing us? I told him that all of the family members were sitting outside the house since night to which he replied that it was not their concern. When the matter was taken up by the media, the Station House Officer Amir came at our place and once again misbehaved with the female family members,” Mariam said.

Shedding light on the dispute, Mariam explained that this property was on her mother’s name while the restaurant was registered with her father’s name and was being run by her father.

“Our relatives and my father’s nephews wanted to take control of the restaurant and they were also opening an illegal branch of the restaurant in Karachi without any legal assistance from my father,” she said, adding that her father Professor Iqbal had already filed four different applications besides “we have all completed documentation regarding the property and restaurant. We even have the court’s stay orders regarding the opening of the restaurant’s branch in Karachi. This was the sole reason that our relatives are threatening us like this”, she said.

Mariam informed how they provided and showed these documents to the police, but even then they were instructed to give in to the demands of Professor Iqbal’s nephews.

It is pertinent to mention that when this scribe called Tibbi Police Station, the Muharar completely denied that police was aware of any such incident and asked to contact the sub inspector. When SI Latif was contacted, he also denied having any knowledge of the issue.

Published in Daily Times, May 20^th 2018.