Petitioner against JuD ‘fears death in custody’

LAHORE: The lawyer of a man who had moved court against Jamaatul Dawa for allegedly operating a sharia court in the city says that Ichhra police has been illegally detaining him for a week. Maqbool Sheikh, counsel for Khalid Saeed, told The Express Tribune on Monday that in a message conveyed to him Saeed had expressed concerns about his safety. The police have threatened to kill Saeed, he said.

Sheikh said his client had not been presented before any court since he was taken into custody on June 14. This was a violation of his fundamental rights, he said.

Sheikh said that fearing for their safety his client’s family had already left their house and gone into hiding. He said a few weeks before his arrest he had been kidnapped by unidentified suspects who forced him to drink a poisonous liquid. He said the suspects had asked him to withdraw his petition against the JuD’s alleged Sharia Courts. He said no action had been taken by the Lytton Road police on his client’s complaint for registration of an FIR.

The investigation officer, ASI Bashir Ahmad, dismissed that Saeed was being threatened or harassed by the police. He said he had been taken into custody for the purposes of interrogation in a fraud case. He said Saeed had been accused of issuing cheque for Rs10 million that had bounced. He said the police had not presented him in a court because they were still probing the matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2016.