Missing persons: Inquiry ordered into police torture of 5th grader

The child, now with broken ribs, had been picked up by police along with father.

PESHAWAR:

Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday ordered a judicial inquiry into a case where a man and his son – a student of grade 5 – were picked up by a police team allegedly for ransom demand.

According to a writ petition filed by Maamla Bibi, wife of Jandad Hussain, and mother of 5th grade student Iqbal Hussain, the two were spirited away by officials of the Hayatabad police station, but her son was released after some time, but only after being tortured for failing to provide a hefty sum of ransom demanded by the station’s officials.

“On December 4, 2011, at about 10am SHO Hayatabad and hawaldar Sher Muhammad alias Sheru, came and arrested/kidnapped Jandad Hussain along with a motor car bearing registration number IDH 849 from the Karkhano check-post in the presence of a lot of people,” the petition says.

Iqbal produced a medical report which confirmed that his ribs were seriously damaged. He added that his father was still in custody of the Hayatabad police and has been charged with a fake case of possessing narcotics.

The two-member bench, which comprised CJ PHC Justice Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Waqar Saith, after hearing the case, directed District and Sessions Judge Peshawar Ziauddin Khattak to probe the matter in light of all the evidence and submit a report to the PHC registrar.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2012.