All 19 staff at the branch of a fastfood chain were jailed after refused to hand over free burgers to a group of police officers in Pakistan.
Workers at Johnny & Jugnu branch in the city of Lahore were arrested and detained for seven hours overnight on Saturday, leaving behind unattended kitchens and hungry customers.
According to an AFP report, it all started when staff at the food chain rejected a “request from a very high profile special guest”.
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The officers threatened the manager of the outlet for refusal of their request free burgers which has become a common practice for police officers.
They returned the next day harassing the staff with arguments and asking to close shop.
Johnny & Jugnu slammed the detention of its entire staff of one of its branch describing it as “abuse of power” and “unjust police culture.”
“This is not the first time something like this has happened with our kitchen teams at our restaurant, but we want to make sure this is the last,” the fast food chain wrote in a statement on social media.
Restaurant staff told AFP that most of those arrested were college students.
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Following pressure online and from the public, nine police officers involved were suspended, senior provincial police official Inam Ghani said on Twitter.
“No one is allowed to take the law into his own hands,” Ghani stressed.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has called for a reform of Punjab’s police force, saying “cronies” had been appointed by politicians to control police stations. (RA)
