Policemen involved in antiques smuggling to be brought to justice: Police Officials

Policemen involved in antiques smuggling to be brought to justice: Police Officials

Mansehra: (Tuesday, December 27, 2011) The police officials inquiring into the antiques smuggling case said today that their colleagues involved into the matter will be brought up to justice after the departmental inquiry is completed.

Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSPs) Shinkiary and Mansehra circles, Rasool Shah and Malik Ijaz, told a press conference that seven historic sculptures and some other broken antiques were recovered from policemen and a first
information report lodged under Section 157/1 while arrests would be made within in a week after the completion of departmental inquiry.

Mansehra District Police Officer Ijaz Ahmad Khan, who could not attend the press conference because of his official engagements, has constituted an inquiry team headed by Rasool Shah and Malik Ijaz to recover antiques from the policemen, including an assistant
sub-inspector.

“Nobody is above the law and the policemen involved in the case will be taken to task without any discrimination,” stated Ijaz in response to a query.They said ancient sculptures had been recovered from a house in Jander Banda Street near the Ashoka rocks at
Karakoram Highway in a police raid recently.

The officials said internal inquiry would also determine the role of the policemen. “The role of the policemen in the smuggling or how they got these sculptures will also be made public after the completion of inquiry,” Rasool Shah said.

They said a professor of the Archeology Department, Hazara University, had examined antiques and confirmed that these pieces had been excavated from historic cities in Khanpur area of Haripur.

The officials said that some names of the accused were being kept secret till the inquiry was completed. They also announced a reward of Rs5,000 for a local journalist Shaukat Ali Tanoli, whose story led the police to seize the sculptures.

The cops said the sculptures, dating back to thousands of years, would be handed over to the Hazara University for its museum.

While this is not the first time policemen have been found indulged into heinous crimes, this is definitely a rare show that their colleagues have attempted to bring them to justice. Although hopes for the claims to materialize
are low, yet, one must not get skeptical unless said inquiry reaches to its conclusion.

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Posted by Fayyaz Yaseen on Dec 27 2011. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry