Teacher accused of extortion dies of 'police torture'

A school teacher, accused in an FIR for seeking extortion, died in the police custody due to alleged torture in Shahdadpur town of Sanghar district late on Monday night. Jam Aziz Jakhro's body, as per the initial postmortem report, bore marks of torture.

The SSP Shahdadpur Abid Baloch on Tuesday suspended SHO of Shahdadpur police station and three of the SHO's subordinate as family of the deceased Jam Aziz Jakhro staged a sit-in outside the police station along with the dead body. The representatives of Government Schools Teachers Association (GSTA) also joined the protest, accusing the police of killing an educationist.

Meanwhile, the Civil Judge and Judicial Magistrate II, Asif Ali Siyal, on Tuesday referred the incident's inquiry to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) under section 5 of The Torture and Custodial Death (Prevent and Punishment) Act, 2022. According to Inspector Wali Muhammad Bhanbhro, the deceased was rounded up for investigation in connection with an FIR of extortion, registered on complaint of Hasnain Ali Metlo.

The police claimed that they arrested a suspect who told the police that his SIM card remained in possession of the deceased from November 6 to November 8 when the complainant received the extortion threats. Inspector Bhanbhro apprised the court that during investigation Jakhro complained of some sort of pain in his body after which he was shifted to (Shahdadpur Institute of Medical Sciences) where he died.