Lady SHO attacked by mob for implementing lockdown

The government seemed to be struggling to persuade religious groups to maintain social distancing in order to curb the spread of the virus, as a lady SHO in Orangi Town, Pirabad was attacked by mob when she tried to restrict people from conducting Friday prayers in congregation at a mosque.

SHO Sharafat Khan along with her male subordinate was convincing residents [who were trying to attend a Friday prayer congregation despite government's clear directives] to follow the lockdown, and restrain from gathering in the wake of fast spreading Covid-19, however, the estranged mob attacked her.

As the police asked the crowd to disperse, the people started pelting stones at them, resulting in injuries to the SHO who was recently posted as SHO Pirabad.

A video shows Khan standing outside a mosque with a bleeding nose as residents exit a mosque. She was standing there firmly while dealing with the situation. The furious cop can be heard as directing policemen to make videos and pictures of people who stacked and broke her glasses.

"I didn't lock the mosque, but I will do so now," the officer is heard saying in the video before she left the area in her vehicle.

Police said that the people who attacked Khan had been identified and will be arrested soon. Police said the situation was brought under control when an additional contingent of police and Rangers personnel arrived at the scene.

Meanwhile reports suggested that a Judicial Magistrate took notice of the incident and asked the DIG and SSP West to submit a report. He said that strict action will be taken against all those who don't follow the law.

On last Friday, two police officials were beaten by an angry mob in Liaquatabad when the law enforcers stopped them from going to mosques to offer Friday prayers in congregation. The both policemen were assaulted by people, who later had to find cover at a citizen's home.

Like the previous week, the Sindh government had announced a complete lockdown on Friday from 12pm to 3:30pm, banning all kinds of vehicular movement in the province. Only three to five people associated with the mosques were allowed to offer weekly prayers.

Police were enforcing the 3-hour 'curfew like' lockdown to prevent people from going to mosques to offer Friday prayers owing to the spread of the novel coronavirus.

However, the lockdown was largely implemented in Karachi. People preferred to stay at homes. Only a few individuals were seen going to and coming from mosques during prayer hours.

The country has reported around 4695 people infected with coronavirus till Friday. Of them around 795 patients have recovered so far.

The official figures released by Sindh Government suggest that till Friday morning 586 new tests were conducted, of them 86 turned out to be positive. So far 12,209 tests have been conducted in the province. 1214 cases have been diagnosed as positive. 358 or 30 percent persons of the diagnosed patients recovered while 22 persons or 1.8 percent have lost their lives. At present 521 patients are in home isolation and 35 are in isolation centres.