Torture video: Chief Justice forms committee to probe charges

Video of students being beaten, humiliated aired on private TV; students protest against university administration.

MULTAN:

Lahore High Court Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry on Tuesday constituted a committee to probe a video showing two students of Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) beaten up by five men at Hamza Hostel. The CJ appointed Justice Sattar Chaudhy as the head of the committee.

The victims had appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan on Monday to take notice of the incident in June 2011 after parts of the video were aired by a TV channel on Monday.

On Tuesday, Waseem Abbas, identifying himself as one of the victims, filed a complaint with the Alpa police station.

Amir Zulfiqar Khan, the city police officer, said that a crackdown against people allegedly holding the university hostels hostage will be launched once the governor approved the plan. Abbas had told the police that five of the six men were People’s Student Federation (PSF) members and identified one as Department of Agriculture student.

Police said these five men were wanted in several cases including torture complaints. The police identified them as Akram Babr, Sajjid Imran, Rana Javed, Jam Irfan, Taimur Niazi, Shaikh Ibrahim and Zubair Gishkori.

Abbas said that he and his friend, Hassan Ali, were called in room 26 of Hamza Hostel by one of the assailants. He said all six men appeared to be drunk. He said they beat the two with sticks as soon as they entered the room. He said that the men ridiculed them and sexually assaulted him and his friend. He said they made a video of the incident and warned them to stay silent otherwise they would ‘leak’ the video to their families and on campus.

After the video went on air, Abbas said, their oppressors had been threatening them with death if they dared file a complaint with the police. He said the police had been hesitant to register a case before the CJ took notice.He said that the criminals had sent the video to Hassan Ali’s father, Rehman Ali, and demanded Rs100,000 threatening to broadcast the video on media in case they were not paid. “Under pressure, Hassan’s father, suffered a cardiac arrest leading to his death on September 14,” he said.

Reaction

The Muslim Students Federation (MSF) on Tuesday staged a protest rally at the Katchery Square demanding immediate arrest of the assailants. The participants raised slogans against the university administration for failing to provide security to the students. They said this was not the first time students had been humiliated and tortured. The protesters said that the university had been without a VC due to a ‘the rift between the governor and the chief minister.’

The participants accused the administration of supporting certain student unions on the campus and not taking any action against criminals residing in the hostels. The administration helped criminals by not allowing the police to search the hostels or talk to students, they said.  They said that there had been no inquiry of the incident by the university administration or the police so far.

PPP MPA Ahmed Hussain Dehar, a member of the BZU syndicate, while talking to The Express Tribune said that the chief minister and the governor were responsible for the incident in having failed to appoint a VC.

Altaf Dasti, the BZU estate officer, told The Tribune that it was too early to say anything. A committee would soon be constituted to ascertain the facts. “It will likely take some time as it is an old issue,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2011.