Tag: Lahore CCPO Umar Sheikh

  • Usman Mirza case: Stop blaming the victim

    Usman Mirza case: Stop blaming the victim

    A harrowing video recently went viral on social media in which a man, Usman Mirza, was seen harassing and assaulting a young couple. He had a few male accomplices with him, and he was also armed. Mirza beat up the couple, stripped them, and subjected them to sexual assault. Pakistani women on social media came out in support of the young couple and also voiced how unsafe and insecure they feel in a society full of misogyny and violence.

    Following an uproar on social media, the police arrested Usman Mirza and his accomplices. The police also reached out to the couple to record their statement. According to media reports, the couple recorded their statements separately under Section 161 of the Criminal Code. The incident took place last year in November and the couple was blackmailed by the culprit; they ended up paying more than a million rupees to Mirza. This was clearly not an isolated incident as more videos have been found from the mobile phones of the arrested men. It shows that this gang of criminals has been indulging in such nefarious activities for quite some time now.

    Prime Minister Imran Khan has taken notice of the case. The Islamabad police chief briefed PM Khan on the case yesterday. Thankfully, the police have so far been extremely responsible and have not indulged in any victim-blaming, unlike the Motorway gang rape case where CCPO Lahore’s comments about the rape survivor were atrocious, to say the least. SSP (Investigations) Atta-ur-Rehman appeared on a few TV talk shows and actually talked about why such incidents are not reported by victims and survivors due to social taboos. Unfortunately, we still have people in our society who think the victims are somehow at fault instead of holding the culprits solely responsible for their crime. Just last month, PM Khan made a controversial statement in an interview where he said that if women wear very few clothes, it will have an impact on the men unless they are robots. And today, in a now-deleted tweet, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker Hina Butt said that while beasts Usman Mirza should be condemned but is it not necessary that we teach our boys and girls why they become targets of such beasts. “Our youth should also introspect their own behaviour.”

    One wonders why the young couple should introspect when they were the victims and not the perpetrators of a despicable crime. In fact, those who are busy blaming and shaming innocent victims should be introspecting instead. Such attitudes do not just make victims and survivors more insecure but are extremely triggering for those who have faced sexual harassment, assault, and rape. Why is it that ‘honour’ is always linked to a woman in our society? Why is it that instead of empowering women, even empowered women end up blaming the victims of abuse? Why is it that everything depends on how a woman was dressed or where she was or who she was with or at what time she went out? Why? We need to uproot this deeply embedded misogyny from our minds. We need to make our women feel secure. We need to make our laws stronger and implement them so that these survivors have trust in the justice system and also in our society so that they do report such harrowing incidents instead of staying quiet due to expected backlash. When we start pointing fingers at the victim, we end up empowering the criminals, the perpetrators of violent crimes. Stop this trend. Enough is enough.

  • ‘Intoxicated’ couple who assaulted cops in Lahore identified

    Police have identified a couple, who misbehaved with the Lahore police officials on Sunday, and efforts are underway to arrest the suspects.

    The man has been identified as Sher Khan, a resident of Kharian, Gujrat, while the woman has been identified as Kinza, according to ARY News. However, no arrests have been made so far, as a police team that was sent to arrest the suspects came back empty-handed after a raid at their residences.

    The video of the incident had gone viral on Sunday after a woman, who looked intoxicated, started misbehaving with the police officers after they stopped her from allegedly consuming alcohol in public. The woman could also be seen slapping a policeman who was trying to film her actions.

    The FIR of the case registered at the DHA Phase V police station stated the woman and her friend had entered into a brawl with police officers when the latter tried to stop them from consuming alcohol in public.

    Authorities say the ‘intoxicated’ woman had first misbehaved with the staff of the cafe before coming on the street outside. “The guard of the restaurant stopped the woman as she was consuming alcohol in public,” a police officer was quoted by a media outlet as saying. “Both of them got into an argument after which police in the neighbourhood stopped by to clear the commotion.”

    The Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) had also taken notice of the incident that occurred on Saturday night and summoned a detailed report in this regard from the Defence ASP. CCPO Sheikh had also lauded the police officers for being patient with the woman despite her attack.

  • ‘Lahore CCPO sent home on forced leave’

    ‘Lahore CCPO sent home on forced leave’

    Journalist Adeel Raja on Wednesday claimed that the new chief of Lahore police, Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Umar Sheikh, who has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons since his appointment last month, has been sent home on forced leave.

    While The Current’s sources corroborate the journalist’s claim as they say that the Lahore top cop was sent home after Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan expressed displeasure over a viral audio clip in which the CCPO purportedly hurled abuses at a woman, a leave application by Sheikh suggests otherwise.

    READ: Bright cop resigns after CCPO Lahore abuses him for speaking English

    “It is submitted that I have to look after my ailing daughter admitted to hospital. Please allow me three days [of] casual leave from 21.10.2020 to 23.10.2020,” read the application, a copy of which is available with The Current.

    Sheikh further stated that during his leave, Lahore’s Operations Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Muhammad Ashfaq Khan will look after the charge of the post of CCPO in addition to his own duties.

    This was also endorsed by Punjab chief minister’s spokesperson in a tweet.

    Azhar Mashwani, while responding to Raja, claimed that CCPO will back after tending to his ailing daughter.

  • Senators wipe the floor with Lahore CCPO after he contradicts motorway rape timeline, gives personal opinion

    Senators wipe the floor with Lahore CCPO after he contradicts motorway rape timeline, gives personal opinion

    Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Umar Sheikh once again found himself in trouble when talking to the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights to talk about the motorway gang-rape case on Monday.

    There seemed to be discordant information about the authorities’ response time to the victim’s distress call when her car broke down on the M11 Motorway. The CCPO said that it took approximately 28 minutes to reach the area, while the officers who actually responded to the distress call said that they reached the area in under six minutes.

    The purpose of the hearing was to discuss the case regarding the horrible gang-rape and mugging of a mother travelling with her children at night on the Lahore-Sialkot motorway. The incident led to country-wide protests and calls for reforms in laws pertaining to sexual assault, specifically with a call for public hangings of the perpetrators.

    CCPO Sheikh said during the hearing that the woman was travelling without her husband’s permission, but soon thereafter admitted this was just a “guess”. He was reprimanded by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Krishna Kumari Kohli, a member of the Senate committee, who also told him not to make any such assumptions in the future.

    When the committee reprimanded him for giving his “personal opinions” instead of stating facts of the case, Sheikh backtracked and said that “he had been told that the victim had left late at night because she had to talk to her husband on video call”.

    The CCPO found himself in even hotter water when he forgot the name of the prime suspect in the case. Abid Ali has been on the run for the past 20 days and the eight special teams — comprising personnel from all of the Punjab Police’s departments — have failed to apprehend despite spotting him at least thrice across the province.

    Sheikh said, “If [police helpline] 15 had received the call, we could have reached that place in 25 minutes. The first call to 15 was at 2:47 am made by a passerby and the 15 officials reached at 3:15 am” while addressing the committee.

    In reply, Marri said either the CCPO lacked the correct information or the committee had been misled.

    “The call came at 2:47 am and the first [Dolphin Force] officer arrived at 2:53 am. I’m telling you the 100% truth,” the CCPO responded.

    “Then your cops are lying,” Marri shot back at him.

    “My job is to stop the crime and catch the culprits,” Sheikh replied. “Neither is there a CCTV [camera] at the toll plaza nor is an actual toll tax receipt given.”

    “Five technologies were used in the motorway rape case; geo-fencing, DNA filing, and fingerprint technology. Even the American police do not respond [to a crime] in six minutes,” he added.

    The committee members expressed anger over the contradiction in the police officer’s statement.

    “You say the police arrived at the scene in 28 minutes but the police said they had reached in six minutes,” the committee said. “The police tried to misguide the committee”.

    The CCPO’s repetitive apologies seemed to further irritate the committee.

    https://youtu.be/ClY85ZLGsFU

    “The CCPO only apologised out of fear of the court,” PkMAP Senator Usman Kakar said.

    Sheikh told the committee that Abid’s data had successfully been found from the Punjab Forensic Science Agency’s (PFSA) 2013 records. “The first case of Daniel Pearl in Pakistan was solved with [the use of] DNA,” he said.

    To which, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, the chairperson of the Senate committee, asked why Abid had been released. At this, Lahore’s top cop simply sought forgiveness once more.

    “Babar Malhi’s blood and DNA have also matched,” he said.

    At which, the committee members paused, in shock, and asked: “Babar Malhi or Abid Malhi? Is the main suspect [named] Abid or Babar? You are investigating this case and you don’t know the name of the main suspect.”

    At this point, the shaken officer cited his age as an excuse for his poor memory and continued to seek forgiveness from the committee, repeatedly apologising to all members of the hearing. He even went as far as to say a joint session should be summoned so he can apologise to all lawmakers at once.

    He also talked about his desire to bring “court-martial law” into the Punjab police forced, touted himself as someone “who wishes to bring reforms”, and blamed leaks on his 500 people strong police force.

    He further tried to shift part of the blame in the insufficient response to the call to the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO).

    “In this case, too, an FWO officer was taken on the woman’s conference call. He told her he would send a car,” he said. “That car was on the M2 [motorway] and it took a long time to reach the site.”

    “The crux of the matter is that this alert should have been to 15,” he added.

    Speaking to The Current, Khokhar separately said that he was shocked over the CCPO’s statements. “His mix-ups have created confusion over the police response time.”

  • ‘Shame on you’: Halime Sultan is furious with CCPO Lahore

    ‘Shame on you’: Halime Sultan is furious with CCPO Lahore

    In a rather embarrassing moment for Pakistan, Turkish actor Esra Bilgiç, who plays Halime Sultan in the super hit series Diriliş: Ertuğrul has hit out at Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Umer Sheikh for victim-blaming the woman gang-raped in the horrific motorway incident.

    Read more – Esra Bilgiç shuts up a Pakistani troll on Instagram

    Sharing his video on her Instagram story, Esra said: “Women can drive alone or with their children. [The] only thing you need to do is provide security.”

    She continued: “You’re okay with gangs’ presence on your roads as a POLICE OFFICER? You think that if a woman chooses those roads to drive, there is a right to RAPE and KILL them?”

    “You’re displaying a shocking ignorance on this matter,” said Esra. “Before you advise, you should change your thoughts. It seems impossible. What a shame on you and people like you.”

    CCPO Lahore, while talking about the harrowing incident had remarked that the rape survivor should have been more careful and taken a safer route.

    “I am shocked… you are a mother of three and the only driver late at night… [she] should have taken the GT [Grand Trunk] Road instead, which is densely populated,” he had said while speaking to a private media outlet.

    Sheikh had further said that the woman should “at least have checked her fuel before taking the motorway”.

    He had later apologised amid a strong public reaction.

    Meanwhile, on Thursday, a foreign-educated trainee sub-inspector Fahad Iftikhar Virk submitted his resignation after he was abused by the CCPO for speaking in English.

    According to details, Virk resigned due to an altercation with CCPO Lahore Umar Sheikh.

    “Virk used some words of the English language over which the CCPO lost his temper and reportedly abused him. He called him ‘Angrez ki aulaad‘,” revealed some officials of the department.

  • Bright cop resigns after CCPO Lahore abuses him for speaking English

    Bright cop resigns after CCPO Lahore abuses him for speaking English

    Trainee Sub-Inspector Fahad Iftikhar Virk has submitted his resignation after he was abused by Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Umer Sheikh for speaking in English, The Current learnt on Thursday.

    “I can no longer serve this department,” read his resignation, a copy of which is available with The Current.

    Sources in police department said that Virk resigned due to an altercation with CCPO Lahore Umar Sheikh.

    “Virk used some words of the English language over which the CCPO lost his temper and reportedly abused him. He called him ‘Angrez ki aulaad‘,” they claimed.

    Police sources further said that they are demoralised and demotivated after this incident.

    This is not the first time that Sheikh has made headlines for all the wrong reasons as earlier this month, he had landed in hot water for victim-blaming after the horrific motorway gang-rape incident.

    The Lahore CCPO had earlier remarked that the rape survivor should have been more careful and taken a safer route.

    “I am shocked… you are a mother of three and the only driver late at night… [she] should have taken the GT [Grand Trunk] Road instead, which is densely populated,” he had said while speaking to a private media outlet.

    Sheikh had further said that the woman should “at least have checked her fuel before taking the motorway”.

    He had later apologised amid a strong public reaction.

  • ‘I am sorry’: Lahore CCPO apologises after blaming mother of three for gang-rape

    ‘I am sorry’: Lahore CCPO apologises after blaming mother of three for gang-rape

    Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Umar Sheikh on Monday apologised over his controversial statement regarding the motorway rape incident.

    “I apologise to the victim and all others who were hurt by my remarks. I had no intention of giving any wrong impression,” he said.

    The Lahore CCPO had earlier remarked that the rape victim should have been more careful and taken a safer route.

    “I am shocked… you are a mother of three and the only driver late at night… [she] should have taken the GT [Grand Trunk] Road instead, which is densely populated,” he had said while speaking to Dunya News.

    Sheikh went had further said that the woman should “at least have checked her fuel before taking the motorway”.

    On Tuesday night, it was reported that two robbers had gang-raped a mother of three on the Motorway within Gujjarpura police’s jurisdiction.

    The woman, along with her three children, was driving to Gujranwala in her car when she was forced to stop at the Gujjarpura section of the Motorway after running out of fuel at around 1:30 am. She immediately called a relative and sent him her location. He asked her to also dial the Motorway Police helpline 130 but she was reportedly refused help.

    In the meantime, two robbers approached the car, broke the window and took the woman and her children to nearby bushes where they raped her repeatedly in front of the children. They also snatched her purse that had cash around Rs100,000, one bracelet, car registration and three ATM cards. 

    The Gujjarpura police have registered a case, while motorway police spokesperson said they had not been able to take action as the incident did not occur in the limits of Motorway Police.

    At least one of the two culprits has been identified.

  • Misogyny is the norm

    “The country’s leadership has set the tone.”

    As if the incident when a woman in a stopped car by the motorway was attacked in front of her children wasn’t horrific enough, the behaviour of the Lahore Police chief, CCPO Umar Sheikh, and his remarks about the incident were even more horrific — so shockingly medieval and misogynistic were these. 

    Is there anything one can say about the remarks of this police ‘officer’? Unfortunately, what one must say is that his remarks are not shocking to a large section of Pakistani society. And by this, I mean that his remarks reflect the mindset of not just a certain class but the thinking of a great many people who have a vested interest in keeping women dependent and sexually subjugated in society.

    The idea that a woman must have a male ‘guardian’ persists because it is preached and disseminated with impunity. Women are killed by their male relatives simply for behaving as independent beings and exercising independent choices. And these men get away with murder. If there is a natural disaster like an earthquake or flooding, women’s ‘shameless’ behaviour is blamed. If a woman is raped, she is to blame rather than her rapists.

    “The country’s leadership, notably the present government, is comprised of misogynists. Imran Khan may have had a westernised upbringing, studied at Oxford, but his public statements about women have all been regressive.”

    This primitive notion of a woman being a symbol of family honour and a slave to patriarchy is promoted openly in Pakistan. We have seen similar incidents (most notably the horrific Delhi bus rape and murder) in India, so let’s just say this is a chauvinist South Asian concept tinged with convenient references to your religion of choice. It has been almost four decades since the repressive Zia era and the brave resistance by the Women’s Action Forum (WAF) with so many other movements for social justice and democracy. Yet today you have the police chief of the main city of the majority province openly victim-blaming in the most misogynistic way, and you have the prime minister —  a leader who promised change and progress and social justice – not even bothering to condemn the remarks or order the sacking of this offensive (and very un) civil servant. 

    And therein lies the main problem: the country’s leadership, notably the present government, is comprised of misogynists. Imran Khan may have had a westernised upbringing, studied at Oxford, but his public statements about women have all been regressive. His government has not put gender equality or women issues on their list of priorities and it rarely talks about misogyny. The PM is surrounded by people who, like the Lahore police chief, are both habitually rude and habitually chauvinistic. And they get away with it. The PM himself is extremely rude and offensive when speaking about opposition politicians so, in a way, he has set the tone for the present. No surprise then if he were soon to express the Musharaffian view that ‘rape cases are the fault of women and journalists, and are a conspiracy to get visas by defaming Pakistan’…

    “What exactly is PTI’s concept of justice? And what steps have they taken to implement a system based on this concept? Perhaps this incident might be a good time to reflect on this.”

    Will he sack the ‘officer’ making the remarks? Probably not, because for some reason this ‘officer’ is well ensconced in the Punjab capital. And so he seems to have some sort of mysterious immunity and can get away with saying stupid things like women should not go out on their own, support patriarchal repression and just continue with his victim-blaming and misogyny.

    Lots of issues here: a misogynist society, power structures that fear female emancipation, religious regressivism that preaches the evils of the ‘loose woman’ or ‘temptress’ — and a government that doesn’t seem to be at all interested in issues of equality and justice or law and order. The PM issuing a statement condemning the incident is not enough because that is just lip service. What is needed now is that action is taken and lessons are learnt. And perhaps it might also be nice to have a minister for human rights who is actually concerned about the rights of the citizens of Pakistan instead of just making irrelevant statements about human rights violations in distant lands….

    Imran Khan’s party calls itself a justice movement. What exactly is PTI’s concept of justice? And what steps have they taken to implement a system based on this concept? Perhaps this incident might be a good time to reflect on this.

  • ‘I was stabbed 23 times in broad daylight’: Khadija Siddiqi shuts up Lahore CCPO

    ‘I was stabbed 23 times in broad daylight’: Khadija Siddiqi shuts up Lahore CCPO

    Barrister Khadija Siddiqi, who was stabbed 23 times in broad daylight in Lahore, has reminded Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Umar Sheikh of what happened in her case, shutting him up for his statement blaming the motorway gang-rape survivor for travelling alone with her three kids past midnight.

    “I was stabbed 23 times in broad daylight! Don’t tell us that ‘time’ is directly connected to the commission of offense!” she tweeted while also asking as to under what authority could the CCPO set “time limits” on women’s travel.

    The officer, who is also supposed to be leading the investigation of the motorway rape case, is being criticised for using language that tantamounts to victim-blaming.

    “I am shocked… you are a mother of three and the only driver late at night… [she] should have taken the GT [Grand Trunk] Road instead, which is densely populated,” CCPO Sheikh had said while speaking to Dunya News.

    He went on to say that the woman should “at least have checked her fuel before taking the motorway”.

    THE INCIDENT:

    On Tuesday night, it was reported that two robbers had gang-raped a mother of three on the Motorway within Gujjarpura police’s jurisdiction.

    The woman, along with her three children, was driving to Gujranwala in her car when she was forced to stop at the Gujjarpura section of the Motorway after running out of fuel at around 1:30 am. She immediately called a relative and sent him her location. He asked her to also dial the Motorway Police helpline 130 but she was reportedly refused help.

    In the meantime, two robbers approached the car, broke the window and took the woman and her children to nearby bushes where they raped her repeatedly in front of the children. They also snatched her purse that had cash around Rs100,000, one bracelet, car registration and three ATM cards. 

    The Gujjarpura police have registered a case, while motorway police spokesperson said they had not been able to take action as the incident did not occur in the limits of Motorway Police.

  • VIDEO: Police blame mother-of-three survivor for gang-rape, say ‘she should have taken GT Road’

    Lahore’s new Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Umar Sheikh, who was earlier this week blamed for the removal of Punjab’s fifth inspector general of police (IGP) in two years, has now made headlines for blaming a gang-rape victim for the incident.

    “I am shocked… you are a mother of three and the only driver late at night… [she] should have taken the GT [Grand Trunk] Road instead, which is densely populated,” he said while speaking to Dunya News.

    Sheikh went on to say that the woman should “at least have checked her fuel before taking the motorway”.

    THE INCIDENT:

    On Tuesday night, it was reported that two robbers had gang-raped a mother of three on the Motorway within Gujjarpura police’s jurisdiction.

    The woman, along with her three children, was driving to Gujranwala in her car when she was forced to stop at the Gujjarpura section of the Motorway after running out of fuel at around 1:30 am. She immediately called a relative and sent him her location. He asked her to also dial the Motorway Police helpline 130 but she was reportedly refused help.

    In the meantime, two robbers approached the car, broke the window and took the woman and her children to nearby bushes where they raped her repeatedly in front of the children. They also snatched her purse that had cash around Rs100,000, one bracelet, car registration and three ATM cards. 

    The Gujjarpura police have registered a case, while motorway police spokesperson said they had not been able to take action as the incident did not occur in the limits of Motorway Police.

    PUBLIC REACTION:

    With the incident making headlines and medical reports confirming gang-rape, social media flooded with posts by the general public as well as political leaders in support of the survivor and against the authorities over their “continuous failure to protect the people”.

    Amid public outcry, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s aide on political communication, Dr Shahbaz Gill, said that on Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Usman Buzdar’s directives, Lahore CCPO Umar Sheikh will lead the investigation.

    “Urban and rural policing techniques are being used,” he said, adding that CCTV footage and DNA matching was being used in the probe.”

    Dr Gill further said that around 12 suspects have been arrested.

    ‘POLICE DOING GREAT WORK’:

    Earlier, newly-appointed IGP Inam Ghani claimed that police have secured “evidence” that will lead them to the culprits.

    “We have done great work so far in the motorway rape case. We have located the village from which the suspects were from,” the IGP revealed in a conversation with Geo News. 

    He also shared that 20 police teams were working on the case and being overseen by a deputy inspector-general (DIG).

    Ghani shared that the survivor had provided ages and other identifying features of the suspects. “Right now, we have a very good clue which will lead us to the suspects directly. However, we cannot share it with the media yet.”

    He also shared that police have obtained the complete voter list and record from the National Database & Registration Authority (NADRA) of the area where the suspects are believed to have hailed from. 

    IG Ghani said that the woman’s children, who were forced to witness the horrific crime, were now with their family, who have been assured that they will be provided all kinds of support. He hoped that the victims of the attack would be in a much better state when the suspects are arrested.