Suicide or torture?: Man’s throat slit while in custody

Police term it ‘suicide attempt’, family says it’s torture.

MULTAN: A man was taken to Nishtar Hospital with a slit throat. The victim’s family blamed the police, whose custody he was in when the incident happened, while officials insisted that it was a suicide attempt.

Ghulam Abbas was arrested by Sanawan Police in Muzaffargarh along with another man after an FIR (no 264/11) was registered against them for kidnapping a girl. Abbas and his family denied any involvement in the kidnapping.

Abbas’ uncle, Fida, said that the police had subjected his nephew to severe torture. Ghulam Abbas also said that the police had tried to kill him. “Police blamed me for kidnapping the woman but I do not even know who she is,” Abbas said. He alleged that the police had arrested him at the insistence of the woman’s family. He also said that during interrogation the police had threatened to kill him and his brother and involve all of his family in the case if he did not admit that he had kidnapped the woman.

Ghulam Abbas’ brothers, Sarfaraz and Shebaz, said that the cases’ investigation officer, sub inspector Afzal, was responsible for the “attempt on Abbas’ life” while in custody.

Police, however, denied that they knew the woman’s family or that they had tortured Abbas.

Abbas’ family demanded that the chief minster order an inquiry.

The Muzaffargarh district police officer (DPO) Rao Munir rejected the allegations that police had cut his throat during interrogation, saying, “It was a suicide attempt. The police are not involved in this incident in any way.”

Despite the denial, satiation house officer of the Sanawan police station, Shahid Mehmmod Shah, told The Express Tribune that the DPO had suspended a Constable, Muhammad Khushi.

The hospital Emergency ward in charge Akbar Saeed told The Express Tribune that it was still too soon to say how Abbas was doing. “We operated upon the patient and have shifted him to a special ward. We will have to monitor the patient for the next 24 hours,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th, 2011.