The arrested cops. Photo courtesy Sindh Police
Sindh Police on Tuesday arrested four policemen accused of extorting a bribe by Pakistani cricketers Sohaib Maqsood and Aamir Yamin, who lamented the police harassment in a posting on social media.
According to a police spokesperson, authorities acted after cricketer Maqsood’s post went viral, taking into custody the personnel from the Sakrand Police Station for exceeding their authority. The policemen, they said, were arrested from Nawabshah. They also claimed that station house officer and head inspector of the Sakrand Police Station had been suspended after being found guilty of negligence.
In an official statement, the Sindh Police said an inquiry conducted by the DIG Shaheed Benazirabad had found that the national cricketers were bribed while traveling on the Superhighway between 12 a.m. and 1 a.m. last night. It said the report had been forwarded to the Sindh inspector general of police, adding a First Information Report had been registered and legal action initiated.
“We are so lucky that we live In Punjab not in Sindh. [F]irst time in my life I am traveling from Karachi to Multan by road and Sindh police is so corrupt that they stop you after 50km and ask for money or they threat[en] you to go to the police station for no reason,” wrote Maqsood on X, formerly Twitter. “If you give them money then they will stop you again after 50km and ask for money again. Corruption at its peak in Sindh Police,” he continued. “We told them that we are international cricketers traveling to Multan after our match in Karachi they still took Rs. 8,000 and then let us go,” he added.
Narrating the incident during an interview with Geo News, Maqsood explained that he was traveling with Yamin to Multan after his team’s final match in the National T20 Cup in Karachi. “We passed the toll plaza in Sindh, and after two kilometers, a pair of policemen at a lonely spot near Sakrand stopped us, asking for vehicle documents,” he said, adding that the cops had then criticized his use of high-beam light, claiming this carried a fine of Rs. 100,000.
“I informed them that checking papers was not within their jurisdiction, and if traffic police were to stop us, they would typically impose a fine of up to Rs. 2,500,” he said, adding that this had prompted further threats of arrest. After some “negotiation,” he said, the cops agreed to let them go for Rs. 8,000.
“This incident frightened us since it was nighttime and an isolated place,” he said, adding that after another 30-40km, police had attempted to stop his vehicle again. “Instead, we stopped at a hotel in Sukkur, where we stayed overnight,” he said, stressing that the only point of his social media post was to highlight the challenges faced by the general public when even high-profile personalities were harassed by police.