FIVE GERMANS AND BRITAINS WERE DETAINED BRIEFLY

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Five foreigners (one Britain and four Germans)were detained briefly on Friday by the Qila Gujjar Singh police after they failed to produce proof of identity when demanded by the police.The five foreigners, one from Britain and four from Germany, were stopped at the Police Lines check post. They failed to provide their passports when the police asked them.The four men were then taken to Qila Gujjar Singh police station.
They were later let go when the papers were produced.Police said the men included Masud Yaris from Britain and Peter Waruni, Oliver Humerman, Uve Brian and Wolfing Spring from Germany.
They said the men were on their way to the hotel they were staying at, after visiting Uzbek Carpets on Nicholson Road.Yaris told that he was a carpet exporter and had been living in Pakistan for 15 years.
The German men, he said, were his guests.It was an absolute mayhem before the capital city police had to free after an hour of deliberations four Germans, who were taken into custody at a check post in front of the Pakistan Railways Headquarters while travelling with some local hosts in two motorcars but did not have any documents to prove their identity, it has learnt on Friday.
A police official, Muhammad Nazir, told that the personnel manning a security post outside the Qila Gujjar Singh Police Lines signalled two cars to a halt under their stop and search powers. The vehicles, occupying seven people, four of them foreign nationals, were heading from Nicholson Road to Davies Road.
One of the two local drivers, who later turned out to be a carpet dealer, made a failed attempt to persuade the policemen that foreigners were his guests and that they were on a routine business trip to Lahore. A recall of Raymond Davis`s episode probably sent the pulses of policemen racing when the foreigners failed to come up with their identity credentials.
Smelling a rat, Inspector Abdul Qayyum immediately called his high-ups on which an enforcement led by Civil Lines SHO Majid Bashir rushed to the scene and escorted the seven people to the police station after the foreigners failed to produce their passports or any other valid identity document.
The four Germans were later identified as Peter Varni, Oliver, Obravis and Wolfin Sprine â€“ the business partners of carpet dealer Masood Yarish, who runs his business at 21-Nicholson Road.
The matter was brought into the knowledge of capital city police officer Muhammad Aslam Tareen, who tasked Operations DIG Rao Sardar with dealing the situation “delicately”.
Sources said that DIG Sardar, Operations SSP Rana Faisal, Civil Lines SP Umer Saeed and other senior officers interviewed the detained people about their whereabouts.
Yarish informed the police that the Germans were his mercantile partners and they had arrived here two days ago and were staying in Room Nos 44, 75, and 79 of Pearl-Continental Hotel. He said that he was going to drop his guests at their hotel when they were rounded up by the police.
The police later released all of them after the management of the five-star hotel verified the credentials of the Germans staying with them.
About legal aspects of the case, a leading lawyer spoke to this scribe on Friday night said that no law forces foreigners to carry their identity documents along with them throughout their journey in Pakistan.
Barrister Ali Zafar said foreigners were obliged to keep their credentials in safe custody, either with their hotel managements or their hosts.