‘In police custody’: AJK traders protest vendor’s death

MUZAFFARABAD:

Traders and workers in Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s capital Muzaffarabad demonstrated against the alleged death of a vendor in police custody.

Asghar, a vendor from Bahawalpur, was arrested along with eight others on Monday during an anti-encroachment drive in Bela Noor Shah area.

The vendors were shifted to a police station where Asghar suffered a heart attack, recalled traders.

He was rushed to the Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Hospital in Muzaffarabad where doctors pronounced him dead.

The traders accused the police of torture-killing; however, the authorities rejected the impression that he was tortured to death adding that the family has filed no complaint in this regard.

Traders Association President Shaukat Nawaz Mir said they have not accused the police of torturing the vendor but it was their duty to take him to a hospital in time where doctors could have saved his life.

Senior Superintendent Police Irfan Masood Kashfi assured protesters that the police will investigate the death on a priority basis, despite the fact that Asghar did not die in police custody.

The protesters put tyres on fire and blocked traffic for hours on Allama Iqbal Bridge on Tuesday, and ended the protest after intervention of top police officials.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 30^th, 2015.