Youth dies in police custody

Victim’s heirs end protest on assurance of senior officers of registration of FIR against Rahuki police officials

HYDERABAD:

A young man named Hanif Katiar was allegedly killed in the police custody at Rahuki police station in Hyderabad on Sunday.

The bereaved family has accused the station house officer (SHO) Iqbal Abbassi for the alleged custodial murder of 25-year-old Hanif Katiar.

Five policemen including three cops were later booked in the FIR at PS Rahuki on complaint of Hanif’s brother Insaf Katiar.

However, all the accused have escaped arrest. According to the complainant, the two brothers left their home in a village in Jhando Mari taluka of Tando Allahyar district on the morning of December 18, 2021, to sell their livestock in a cattle market in Tando Adam, Sanghar district. They sold their livestock in the market and headed home with cash.

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As they were leaving the market, SHO Abbassi and three other policemen, who have been nominated in the FIR, and two other unknown persons in civil dress, stopped them. Hanif said the cops started beating Insaf and took him away in a private car.

Around 10am on Sunday they came to know that Katiar has been killed in the police custody and his body has been shifted to the LUH. The PS SHO Rahuki and other implicated policemen escaped with the police and their families claiming to be unaware of their whereabouts.

The deceased was allegedly kept locked up in PS Rahuki on Saturday night. Reportedly, DSP Tandojam subdivision Ali Raza Lashari visited the PS Rahuki on receiving information about the death and he later shifted the dead body to the Liaquat University Hospital.

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The DIG Hyderabad Pir Muhammad Shah took notice of the incident and directed SSP Hyderabad Sajid Amir Saddozai to submit the incident report.  

The police were deployed outside the police surgeon's office in premises of the LUH and the media was barred from entering the facility to know about the initial assessment of the team of doctors conducting the postmortem. Katiar's family also reached the hospital and they held a protest against the police.

Later, another police inspector took the family with him for a meeting with the SSP. The SSP reportedly assured them that the police would lodge an FIR and that they would impartially investigate the case.

The family after the SSP's assurance received the dead body after the postmortem for the burial rites.