Inmates ‘tortured’ for highlighting jail issues

Court takes notice of violence, seeks detailed medical report of victims

RAWALPINDI:

Two prisoners have reportedly gone on a hunger strike over alleged torture by the administration of Adiala Jail for raising the curtain over the problems facing the inmates of the prison during a detailed visit by the former chief justice of Islamabad High Court.

The suspects alleged that soon after the high-profile visit, the jail administration beat them black and blue before transferring them to the District Jail Jhelum as a punishment.

On Thursday, when the prisoners were produced before a judge in the relevant court of District Jail Rawalpindi from the Jhelum District Jail, both of them opened up about the violence of the jail administration.

Civil Judge Sadaqat Ali Khan while taking strict notice of the alleged brutal violence ordered the jail superintendent of District Jail Jhelum to get the detailed medical examination of the suspects conducted at the District Headquarters Hospital within three days and submit the report on Monday.

The court said strict action would be taken against those responsible for the violence.

Sources said a case of motorcycle theft was registered in Rawalpindi’s Naseerabad police station on May 30, 2022, in which Qasim Munir son of Munir Khan and Muhammad Sulaiman son of Muhammad Akbar were arrested and sent to Adiala Jail.

Both the accused told the court that former IHC CJ, Justice Athar Minallah [now a judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan], paid a detailed visit to the Adiala Jail and they answered the judge’s queries about the jail facilities and issues.

“After the judge left, both of us were tortured in Adiala Jail and locked in the torture cell,” they alleged and claimed that due to severe torture, their condition deteriorated while the jail doctor treated them.

The prisoners also informed the court that after being kept in the torture cell, they were transferred to District Jail Jhelum as a punishment.

“All the prisoners who talked to the judge were tortured and sent to different jails,” they alleged.

The inmates requested the court to ensure their protection and order to bring them back to Adiala Jail.

During the hearing, the court itself checked the marks of torture on the bodies of the two suspects and expressed indignance while seeking the medical report from the medical board within three days.

Meanwhile, District Bar Association’s President Faisal Khan Niazi, while talking to The Express Tribune, said that torture during the arrest is extremely cruel and illegal and those responsible for it should be severely punished by conducting a transparent inquiry.

Accused Qasim Munir lamented that the prisoners were not even allowed to answer truthfully to the questions asked by the judge in the jail. “The rule is that any guest, including the judges, who asks any question, should only be replied with ‘All OK’,” he said.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 10^th, 2023.