Battlefield Daska: First FIR registered one day before NA-75 by-poll

The Police in NA-75, Daska on Friday (April 9) Friday registered the First Information Report (FIR) of an incident of firing at former Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) Jameel Ashraf just one day ahead of a by-election in the constituency, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.  

The case was registered on the complaint of Ashraf’s gunman.

The FIR states that 14 persons had resorted to firing at Kasowal at the behest of Chairman Union Council Chaudhry Iqbal Ran which spread terror in the area.

The FIR mentions five persons by their names while nine other unidentified persons as well.   

Talking to the media after registration of the case, Chairman Union Council Chaudhry Iqbal Raan, belonging to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), said that these were Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) goons who had fired at him and his associates but strangely enough police had booked him and his party men in the case and not them.

He accused the PML-N leaders of trying to steal the by-poll scheduled for April 10 by bribing the voters. “But we will not let anybody steal this election,” he expressed the resolve.  

At the same time, however, Raan said that his men had resorted to firing only in self-defence. He advised PML-N leader Ata Tarar to think before levelling allegations.

Regretting that despite complaining to the police, the case was not registered against the real culprits, the chairman union council called upon the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to take notice of the incident.

Raan said that PTI had won three elections against the PML-N in the same constituency, and history would repeat itself on April 10.

While a PTI worker from Kasowal told the media that the trouble had started following PML-N leaders tried to bribe them so that they could vote for their candidate in the by-election.

Another man, seconding PTI worker’s viewpoint, said former MPA Jameel Ashraf and PML-N leader Ata Tarar’s allegations were baseless.

An incident of firing had taken place at Kasowal during an election campaign on Thursday (April 8), prompting PML-N leader Ata Tarar to immediately point fingers at the local PTI leadership.  

He had alleged that Kanwal Nauman, a former PML-N MPA as well as actress, was targeted in the incident.  

He named Union Council Chairman Chaudhry Iqbal Raan and his guards as suspects in the case.

Security is on a high alert in NA-75, Daska as hardly a day is left before the polling gets underway.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has declared 47 polling stations as sensitive out of 360 as all is set for polling in the Daska by-election on April 10.

The ECP directed the authorities to install over 100 CCTV cameras at sensitive polling stations to monitor the situation on polling day due on April 10 in NA-75 Daska. 

Rangers and police have been deployed in the constituency with Pakistan Army soldiers on standby.

Meanwhile, more than 2,500 police personnel have been deployed in Daska for election duty on the polling day. These personnel, armed with defence shields, batons and tear-gas shells, will stay in the city for three days.

These personnel arrived in the city on six big vehicles.

Contributed by Muhammad Chand Malik