Illegal detention: Woman accuses police of kidnapping son

Claims police demanding bribe for release.

PESHAWAR:

The police officials in Paharipura seem to have entered a new ‘lucrative business’ — kidnapping for ransom. A woman on Friday alleged that police officials had illegally detained her son and were demanding Rs2 million for his release.

Gul Mehrjan, a resident of Warisabad in Sethi Town, told The Express Tribune that her son Nadir Khan was taken into custody by officials of Paharipura Police Station on May 24. However, she added, they did not make an
arrest nor register an FIR against him.

“Nadir was detained from Momin Town and since then he has been kept in custody while we have been receiving phone calls displaying the police station’s number, asking for Rs 2 million for his release,” she said.

Gul said initially her son prohibited them from approaching the court. However, once they filed a case against the SHO of the police station, they shifted him to an undisclosed location.

“I used to visit my son and take food for him. But the police has shifted him somewhere else and threatened me not to visit the police station again,” she said.

She accused the police of taking her son to a police post near Turnab during a hearing to avoid his release by the bailiff. She added the police had also removed Nadir’s vehicle from the police station.

According to Nadir’s brother Asghar, Nadir was holding an editorial position at Pashto Daily Jidat and was also running a non-governmental organization. He said that his family paid Rs300,000 to the police on May 27, but now they were demanded Rs2 million for his discharge.

However, he was not able to identify the official to whom the payment was made, saying that his mother paid the amount to an Assistant Sub Inspector who met her at the station.

Nadir’s lawyer Advocate Samiullah Afridi said the bailiff had raided the police station some days back, but was unable to recover him. He said the police had no official record against his client. Instead, there were complaints against him about fraud. He said that there is a proper way to carry out investigations and keeping someone in custody without any record is “totally illegal”.

The officials of Paharipura Police Station told The Express Tribune they had not kept anyone in custody and were hearing Nadir’s name for the first time.





Published in The Express Tribune, June 4^th, 2011.