Illegal detention: ‘Three brothers picked up without justification’

FAISALABAD: Scores of residents of Bilal Town staged a demonstration against Nishatabad police on Sunday to demand that they release three men they had allegedly picked up on Thursday.

The protesters held up placards and banners and gathered at the Zila Council Chowk. They blocked University Road for traffic for several hours and staged a sit-in on the road.

Akbar Ali, one of the protesters, said that the Nishatabad police had taken 28-year-old Shahbaz, and his brothers 26-year-old Nadeem and 24-year-old Sajjad into custody on Thursday without providing their family justification. He said they had been taken to an undisclosed location and had not heard from them since.

“When we visited the police station, the policemen humiliated us and threw us out of the police station without telling us where our relatives are.” Ali said they suspected that the police had taken a bribe from their rivals. “We think that the police will implicate the brothers in a false case and will kill them in an encounter.” Rail Bazaar SHO Malik Jahangir visited the sit-in and told the protesters that they would help the family be re-united with the men soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2016.