Torturing minors: Senate report suggests action against police officials

Functional committee on human rights recommends lodging FIR

ISLAMABAD: A report prepared by a functional committee of the upper house on police torture of two boys has recommended strict legal action against the officials involved.

The report was presented before the Senate by Senator Farhatullah Babar on Wednesday.

Two schoolboys from Rawalpindi had been picked up by the Karachi Company police near the metro station on February 11. The boys were allegedly beaten for several hours by the police and were forced to confess numerous crimes. Only after the family of the boys managed to track the whereabouts of the boys’ cellphones and got the SSP to intervene, the two minors were released, nearly 18 hours later.

The matter had been referred to the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights by the upper house in its sitting held on February 15, 2017. The panel met on March 7 to deliberate on the matter.

Senator Farhatullah Babar, on behalf of the committee’s chairperson Senator Nasreen Jalil, presented the panel’s report on the matter before the Senate.

In its report, the committee said that it had been briefed by the uncle of one of the two boys during a meeting of the panel on March 7.

The man told the Senate panel that the two boys, 14-year-old ZK* and 15-year-old AA*, had been picked by Karachi Company police and shifted to the station. There, the boys had been searched.

He narrated that the police recovered mobile phones and cash along with a toy pistol from the boys.

However, police then proceeded to not only strip the boys, but also subject them to torture and forced them to confess to having committed  robbery.

The police, though, later admitted to their fault in the incident.

Islamabad SSP-Operations Sajid Kiani, who was attending the meeting, conceded that the sequence of events narrated by the uncle of the boy was correct and that the police officials involved had committed a mistake.

Kiani added that an inquiry into the matter had been held and that the five police officials implicated, including the Sector G-9 station SHO, had been found guilty. The officials, Kiani added, had been suspended and show-cause notices had also been served to them. After completion of the inquiry process, the officers would be terminated from service according to law.

The committee appreciated the candid admission of the Islamabad Police and for taking prompt action against the wrong doers.

However, in its report, the panel strongly recommended that apart from terminating the officers from service, a proper case should be lodged against the offenders and that the Senate Secretariat should be kept informed on the progress of the case.

The committee also decided to dispose of the case.

*NAME WITHHELD TO PROTECT IDENTITY

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2017.