Protest against homicide: Police accused of partiality

Intermediate student’s body exhumed from a neigbhouring house on suspect’s indication.

FAISALABAD:

Dozens of people on Tuesday blocked traffic on Narwala Road, placing the body of an intermediate student allegedly sexually assaulted and killed by his neighbours on the ground, and shouted slogans against Razaabad police for not arresting the suspects.

Some protesters clashed with policemen who had asked them to leave and attacked them with sticks. They said the police were not arresting three suspects because they had been bribed. The protesters also accused the police of demanding Rs50,000 to release the body of the deceased.

Police denied these allegations and said that they had arrested Imran, the only nominated suspect, and recovered the body on information he provided during interrogation.

Investigation officer Zafar Zaman said the orginal FIR only contained Imran’s name and mentioned three unidentified suspects.

However, he said, three more names – Nadeem, Shaukat and Pappu – were given to the police on Tuesday afternoon. He said police would soon start raids to arrest the three suspects. “They accused Imran and three unidentified men in the orginal FIR. They have given us three more names today. We’ll start raids to arrest them now,” he said.

Adeel Akmal, an intermediate student, had gone missing from his house in Muhallah Siddique Akbar on October 23.

His body was exhumed on October 24 from a haveli allegedly owned by Pappu on information extracted from Imran during interrogation. IO Zaman said it appeared that Akmal had been strangled.

He said post mortem examination had been carried out on Tuesday and that the report would soon be available.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2011.