Parading brothers half naked: Court sends camel owner to jail

Pre-arrest bail was retracted after opposing lawyers provided evidence of his involvement

HARIPUR: A man, who was allegedly involved in parading two brothers stripped half naked and with blackened faces, was sent to jail on Thursday after a district court cancelled his pre-arrest bail.

The man had allegedly owned and walked the camel atop which two brothers were paraded.

According to lawyers Advocate Jawad Habib and Advocate Rab Nawaz, around three months ago, when Tasawar — son of Munawar — was out with his family on the afternoon of July 25, someone broke into his house in Khoi Maira village in Khanpur and stole around Rs282,000 in cash, some gold ornaments, mobile phones and other valuables.

Tasawar informed the Khanpur police about the robbery. Unsatisfied with the local police’s detective work, he took it upon himself to track the culprits.

He contacted a private firm which offered sniffer dog services and hired them to find the thieves. The dogs, the lawyers said, arrived in the village the next day on July 26.

After roaming around different streets of the village, the dogs entered the home of two brothers, Abdul Sattar and Jamal.

Taking this as proof, Tasawar, with the help of his relatives, dragged the two brothers out of their home and tortured them. Their heads were partially shaved, their faces blackened and stripped half way. They were then forced to mount a camel before being parading through the village for around an hour.

A mob gathered to watch the ‘parade’ heckling and hooting at the brothers before beating them mercilessly with clubs.

The assault left the brothers with serious injuries on their faces, heads and other body parts before the police intervened.

According to the lawyers, Sattar and Jamal were kept in police custody at the Khanpur police station for four days where they were allegedly subjected to further severe physical and mental torture as officials allegedly forced them to confess to the robbery.

However, when a court granted Sattar bail, he along with his mother and another brother, Zulfiqar, filed a case against the villagers.

Among those named in the complaint was Ashraf, son of Noor Muhammad. Ashraf owned and walked the camel atop which the two brothers had been paraded through the village.

He, however, had obtained pre-arrest bail.

On Thursday the two lawyers argued to cancel Ashraf’s bail, producing documents and pictures before an additional judge in Haripur.

The court subsequently cancelled Ashraf’s bail and he was arrested by the police from the courtroom.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7^th, 2016.