Daily Times

Kohsar police Friday registered a case after former deputy speaker and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Qasim Suri along with guests was attacked by unknown individuals at the Kohsar Market. In an FIR registered on his application, Suri said he along with some companions was sitting at a restaurant in Kohsar Market for Sehri when a group of 15 to 20 people approached them.

The report said the ‘attackers’ raised slogans against the former ruling PTI before attacking the PTI leaders with sticks.

Suri said the attackers were threatening that “no one would be able to leave the eatery alive”. The incident spread fear among the people sitting at the restaurant, added Suri.

Around 1:30 am on Friday, Suri had posted a tweet alleging that the “hooligans belonging to the ruling PML-N” tried to attack him and his guests at Sehri time. “The N-League’s hooligans were forced to flee after getting beaten up by the families and the staff of the eatery,” he said, accusing the government of “resorting to foul play”.

Videos that have surfaced on social media show that Pakistan PTI Senator Ejaz Chaudhry was present at the restaurant at the time of the incident.

In one of the videos, he is seen sitting beside Suri and rising from his chair as soon as the men raising slogans of “PTI murdabad” entered the eatery. The unidentified men are then seen attacking Suri and Senator Ejaz.

According to Suri, one of his companions, Dr Arif, sustained an injury on his right eye during the incident. Bhatti, too, suffered injuries on his right eye and leg, he said.

Eventually, he said, others present at the spot intervened and the attackers left in a two “white double cabin [vehicles] and one black V8”.

“Grave injustice has been done and justice should be delivered through legal action,” Suri stated.

He added that he, Mirza and Bhatti could identify those men if they were presented before them.

Early Friday morning, Suri took to Twitter to blame “N-league thugs” for the events that took place.

Islamabad Senior Superintendent of Police (Operations) Faisal Kamran earlier assured that a first information report of the incident would be registered soon after his application was received.

An FIR was later registered on Suri’s behalf under Sections 148 (rioting while armed with deadly weapon), 149 (punishment for all members of an unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

No individuals have been nominated in the FIR.

Meanwhile, SSP Kamran gave assurances that action would be taken against the suspects according to the law, adding that they were being traced with the help of cameras installed as part of the Safe City project and those mounted at the restaurant.

“The suspects will be arrested soon,” he said.

In a video shared by Ejaz Chaudhry on his Twitter, Suri recounted the incident and said the incumbent government believed they could “go to hotels and do thuggery, treating people like this. [But] they had to flee following people’s reaction [to the attack]”.

“Believe me, the way people responded [to the attackers] […] they beat them (attackers) with chairs, waiters beat them. And these dogs that came, they cannot hunt the tiger. They left after being humiliated,” Suri said, thanking people for “retaliating” to the attack.

He went on to say that the days of the “corrupt” and “imported” government, “which is a slave to the US”, were numbered.

“They cannot cause any harm to me,” he commented.