ISLAMABAD: A special force of the Islamabad Police on Saturday conducted a raid at the house of Pakistan Teheek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior leader Barrister Gohar Ali Khan in F/7-2 to arrest the absconders involved in the May 9 violence and other anti-state activities in the federal capital and other parts of the country.
The police manhandled the family of Barrister Gohar, damaged property, and took away valuable documents, mobile phone sets and laptop, Barrister Gohar’s relatives told the media.
Barrister Gohar, who was at that time pleading the PTI case in the Supreme Court, got information about the incident and rushed to his house. The PTI leader, while talking to the media, said that masked police personnel broke into his house and spread out in the building and stormed into rooms to search the house, adding that they handcuffed one of his sons and tortured his wife and other members of the house. He asserted that they took away valuables including documents, laptop, and snatched away mobile phone sets from his sons. Gohar, later, captured footage of his house with witnesses and submitted it before the Supreme Court bench hearing the case.
Inspector General of Police, Islamabad, Dr Akbar Nasir, later visited the house of Barrister Gohar, the police said and added that the raiding party went to the house on a tip-off but came back after learning that it was the house of the PTI leader.
The IGP, while talking to the media, said that it was an “ignorance-based” raid but as they got information that it was the residence of Barrister Gohar, they came back. He said that an inquiry has been initiated and legal departmental action would be taken against the officials found guilty.
Separately, PTI Secretary General Omer Ayub claimed that the Islamabad police raided his house without a warrant. Taking to X (formerly Twitter), he said the act of the police was condemnable. A spokesman of the IGP, in a statement, while rejecting the report of raiding the house of Gohar Ayub, said that it was baseless information.
Meanwhile, the PTI spokesperson condemned the ‘masked men’ raid at the residence of Barrister Gohar and allegedly roughing up his family. The PTI spokesperson said that the unidentified masked men roughed up Barrister Gohar’s son, nephew and watchman.