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Former National Assembly deputy speaker Qasim Suri has approached police, seeking action against a group of unidentified men who he said attacked him and his companions while they were having Sehri at an eatery in Islamabad's Kohsar market early Friday morning.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Video of an attack on Qasim Suri just now. <br><br>Dear PDM, <br><br>Chants of Chor and Ghaddar in Madina on you were by common Pakistanis, NOT PTI workers; we didn't send any plane to Madina like you. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MarchAgainstImportedGovt?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MarchAgainstImportedGovt</a> <a href="https://t.co/2y7ljISxc9">pic.twitter.com/2y7ljISxc9</a></p>— PTI (@PTIofficial) <a href="https://twitter.com/PTIofficial/status/1519805679992721412?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 28, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Videos that have surfaced on social media show that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (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.
Suri has written an application to the Kohsar station house officer, detailing the incident and asking for justice.
In the hand-written application, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, Suri told police that he was visiting an eatery for Sehri in Kohsar market, where "Adeel Mirza [...] and Khalid Bhatti were sitting at one of the tables with me, and Dr Arif and ladies were sitting at another table".
He said a group of 15 to 20 men arrived at the spot around 12:50am and began shouting slogans against the PTI. Suri alleged the men attacked him and his companions with rods, claiming that they meant to kill them.
"They were constantly threatening that nobody would be able to leave [the eatery] alive," he said. That, he continued, "spread fear" among the people.
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.
There is no update yet on whether the FIR has been registered.
SSP Kamran also 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.
For his part, Chaudhry has alleged that the attackers were the "henchmen" of Shahzain Bugti, the Jamhoori Watan Party leader who served as an aide to former prime minister Imran Khan in the previous government before joining the then-opposition in its bid to oust the PTI chief from office.
"We strongly condemn the attack on Qasim Khan Suri by the henchmen of Shahzain Bugti. They can only do thuggery," he said in a tweet, alleging that the attack was in response to an incident in Madinah, where people shouted slogans against sitting ministers while they were visiting the Prophet's Mosque.
DAWN
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Video of an attack on Qasim Suri just now. <br><br>Dear PDM, <br><br>Chants of Chor and Ghaddar in Madina on you were by common Pakistanis, NOT PTI workers; we didn't send any plane to Madina like you. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MarchAgainstImportedGovt?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MarchAgainstImportedGovt</a> <a href="https://t.co/2y7ljISxc9">pic.twitter.com/2y7ljISxc9</a></p>— PTI (@PTIofficial) <a href="https://twitter.com/PTIofficial/status/1519805679992721412?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 28, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Videos that have surfaced on social media show that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (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.
Suri has written an application to the Kohsar station house officer, detailing the incident and asking for justice.
In the hand-written application, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, Suri told police that he was visiting an eatery for Sehri in Kohsar market, where "Adeel Mirza [...] and Khalid Bhatti were sitting at one of the tables with me, and Dr Arif and ladies were sitting at another table".
He said a group of 15 to 20 men arrived at the spot around 12:50am and began shouting slogans against the PTI. Suri alleged the men attacked him and his companions with rods, claiming that they meant to kill them.
"They were constantly threatening that nobody would be able to leave [the eatery] alive," he said. That, he continued, "spread fear" among the people.
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.
There is no update yet on whether the FIR has been registered.
SSP Kamran also 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.
For his part, Chaudhry has alleged that the attackers were the "henchmen" of Shahzain Bugti, the Jamhoori Watan Party leader who served as an aide to former prime minister Imran Khan in the previous government before joining the then-opposition in its bid to oust the PTI chief from office.
"We strongly condemn the attack on Qasim Khan Suri by the henchmen of Shahzain Bugti. They can only do thuggery," he said in a tweet, alleging that the attack was in response to an incident in Madinah, where people shouted slogans against sitting ministers while they were visiting the Prophet's Mosque.
DAWN
