KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
Pic: Bilal Bahadur
At 2:30pm Saturday, minutes after Ms Mehbooba Mufti retained her father’s Islamabad seat by a huge margin, a white Scorpio pulled over before Khanyar Police Station in a dramatic manner. In the din of vehicular movement in busy Babademb, nothing appeared unusual about the car, until an overexcited young man stepped out of it along with his henchmen. What he shortly did not only triggered encounter-like feelings around, but also created a hilarious crisis of sorts.
The young man was identified as son of Khursheed Alam — the ruling PDP’s MLC and the first runner up from Khanyar seat in 2014 assembly elections.
Sajad Alam had arrived with a ‘very mischievous’ idea of celebrating PDP chief’s by-poll victory in NC’s stronghold—Babademb—with a huge cache of crackers.
As he started bursting them to astonishment of passersby, the off guard residents apparently thought that a possible gunfight has started between militants and cops of Khanyar Police Station — that has become a security fortress these days.
While the brazen celebrations triggered fears in general public, it badly irked the loyalists of Khanyar’s incumbent MLA and NC’s secretary general, Ali Mohammad Sagar.
Before Alam Jr could go further gaga with his self-styled celebrations, the rival camp reacted. A bunch of NC supporters came out of a nearby alley to counter the celebrations.
A verbal duel was followed by fists and kicks. Sajad’s henchmen were seen roughing up some local NC supporters, thus triggering heightened tensions in Babademb. Shortly in face of the charged local mood, the PDP MLC’s son speedily fled the scene in his car.
Still infuriated over the audacity of Alam’s son, the irate NC supporters tried to enforce shutdown in the area. The manner they displayed public rage perhaps appeared threatening to the ‘vigilant’ cops nearby.
Armoured with sophisticated gadgetry installed on the tracking tower—erected adjacent to their station—the cops soon got their man.
Well before the tempers could go berserk, the cops raided the NC’s “traditional vote bank” and picked up “the ringleader”, who was allegedly at the centre of the Saturday’s rage. He was taken into preventive custody and lodged in the police lockup.
Amid “low-intensity protests” rocking the area over the arrest, another drama unfolded shortly.
Despite living at a stone’s throw from Khanyar Police Station, the detainee was lodged in the “wrong” thana!
The locals argued that their ‘concerned’ station is far off Maharaj Gunj Police Station, and not the one barely 50 metres from their residences.
Soon another police party came on the spot to sort out the crisis. They were from Maharaj Gunj police post. They deliberated upon the event at length before taking man in their custody.
As the time inched closer to dusk, the NC support group were out of their homes — perhaps still stunned as how somebody’s misadventure cost their weekend and turned it into a freaked out, yet laughable experience.
