Russian tourist couple complains of harassment by Pak police

A foreign couple claimed on Sunday that they had been harassed by police in the Khyber district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Jamrud area, however, the authorities refuted this report, calling it "fake propaganda," Dawn reported.

Slava Skolaniya — a Russian man who is in Pakistan for tourism with his wife told Dawn, “We were travelling in Khyber’s Jamrud when we were intercepted by police personnel who questioned us aggressively and ordered us to not go ahead from there onwards.”

Dawn is a Pakistani English-language newspaper that was launched in 1941.

The Russian tourist said the police asked for documents, which were shown to them. Despite this, he claimed that the cops yelled at them in front of onlookers and ordered them to stop.

 “Some policemen were nice but one guy in particular acted really bad towards us and scared [us] so much by taking a photo of her (his wife) crying and me and posted it on social media [platform] Facebook,” he said, adding that the police also allegedly shared their personal information, including passport and visa details.

He added that a local helped them coming out of the situation, and took them to his house.

The couple, according to Skolaniya, had travelled to close to 80 different countries. They enjoyed seeing new places so they could interact with individuals of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds and learn about their traditions.

The couple had stayed at his home in Bisham last week, according to Ikramullah Khalid, an engineer from Bisham Shangla, who spoke to Dawn. “They were so happy here and are now so upset due to the police behaviour and acts,” he rued.

On the other hand, Peshawar police claimed that the accusation had “no truth”.

According to the statement, a comprehensive investigation into the incident revealed that no police misconduct was done and that the tourists were treated like guests, given complete protection, and taken to Torkham and then Peshawar.

The police statement said that "the foreign couple was going to Afghanistan without informing on Saturday" and that they were picked up by a local taxi at Jamrud Bazaar/Bab-i-Khyber, where they were crowded by onlookers.

According to the report, police arrived at the scene after spotting the crowd and asked the duo for their identification. It went on to say that the Russian couple's "weak" English made conversation challenging, according to Dawn.

According to the report, the cops dispersed the crowd, leaving the couple startled but unmolested.

According to the police statement, the couple quickly departed in a cab, and the police in-charge for Jamrud post then led them with a police contingent for their protection due to the current security situation and accompanied them all the way to Torkham.

Immigration officers at Torkham refused to let the couple into Afghanistan after determining that their paperwork was lacking and that their visas had already expired. They were then transported from Torkham to Karkhano checkpoint under police protection and turned over to the Peshawar police, the statement continued.

It said that every day, police offered security to foreign tourists and urged the public to stop spreading "false propaganda" against the force, Dawn reported.