On 19 March 2015, dozens of under-training Assistant Sub-Inspectors (ASIs) and head constables of the Sindh Police were subjected to baton charge and arrests after they protested outside the Central Police Office on II Chundrigar Road to demand payment of salaries pending for the past few months.
The officials, who had just completed seven-month-long training at the Police Training Centre (PTC) Saeedabad, claimed they had not been paid during this time and were now being ordered to report to the PTC Razzaqabad for elite courses. Irked at not being paid in more than half the year, the under-training ASIs and head constables resorted to demonstrating outside the Central Police Office causing a traffic jam on the city’s busiest street.
“We have been in training for the past seven months without salaries and despite that, between three and four thousand rupees are extorted from us every month as canteen charges,” said ASI Taufiq. “Now that we have completed the course, we are being asked to report to Razzaqabad for elite training where they will extort more money from us.”
Other protesting police officials said they were being sent on pointless training sessions by higher officials to avoid paying their salaries.
As the demonstration progressed, four of the leading protesters were invited inside by the DIG Administration for negotiations. But when he failed to satisfy the representatives of protesting police officials, the demonstrators riled up and began chanting slogans.
When they failed to peacefully disperse the unpaid policemen, personnel of the city division police led by City SP Aftab Nizamani baton-charged them while around 20 of them were also taken into custody and shifted to different police stations. The city police personnel dragged the protesters into their vehicles, tearing their clothes, as the scuffle continued outside the main police office.