Man charged with drug peddling accuses police of harassment

Police deny accusations but confirm they raided houses of man’s relatives after receiving complaints


Our Correspondent January 09, 2017
PHOTO: EXPRESS

HARIPUR: A man on Monday accused Khanpur police of harassing him and his family as revenge for a complaint that he had lodged against them at a Haripur court a few months ago.

Malik Yasir, a resident of Tofkiyan Khanpur village, told a news conference in Haripur on Monday that he had been arrested by the Khanpur police on April 14, 2016.

He claimed that police had arrested him and falsely charged him for peddling drugs. After arresting him, he said the police detained him at the Khanpur police station and allegedly subjected him to brutal physical and mental torture.

Subsequently, he had approached a District and Sessions Judge in Haripur and filed a complaint  under section 22-A of the Criminal Procedure Code. In the complaint, he had urged the court to register a criminal case against the SHO of Khanpur police station and his staff against for detaining and torturing him.

He added that when the police had produced him before a judicial magistrate after his arrest, he had told the magistrate about the torture. The court subsequently ordered that Yasir should be examined by a medical board.

The board, in its report, confirmed that he had been subjected to torture, Yasir claimed.

He added that while the court had rejected his complaint for registering a case against policemen, the Khanpur police bore a grudge against him and threatened that they would teach him a lesson.

Yasir said that two days ago, the Khanpur station SHO Khan Afsar Khan raided houses of his relatives including his brother Malik Babar, his nephew Malik Rashid and a relative Sohail Akhtar. Yasir claimed that the police carried out the raids without any warrants or probable cause.

He accused the police of violating the sanctity of segregation in the houses and of destroying household items, doors worth hundreds of thousands of rupees during the search operation.

Despite the search operation, Yasir claimed that the police had failed to find any contraband from the houses.

Accusing the police of harassing him and his family, Yasir demanded that K-P Inspector General of Police to intervene in the matter and to provide him with protection.

When approached for comment, Khanpur police admitted that they had conducted raids on houses of Yasir’s relatives during a search operation. However, officials added that the raids had been conducted after police had received complaints.

“There were complaints regarding their (Yasir’s family) involvement in criminal activities,” an official said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10th, 2017.

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