‘Tortured to death’: After protest, case registered against four police officials

Family says the victim was picked up five days ago and put in a private torture cell.

RAWALPINDI:

An additional sub-inspector and three constables were booked on charges of torturing a man to death. The case was registered after the family of 35-year-old Mir Dad staged a protest on the Grand Trunk Road, in front of the Mandra Police Station.

Dad, who owned a chicken shop in Bakra Mandi in Rawalpindi, was allegedly picked up five days back by officials of the Mandra police for his suspected involvement in a robbery in Kalyam Awan.

Robbers had taken 62 tolas of gold among other valuables from a lawyer’s house. The police tracked Dad down using one of the IMEI numbers of a phone taken during the robbery. Dad’s family, however, maintains that he had bought the phone recently.

A relative of Dad, also part of the protesting group, told The Express Tribune that they believe ASI Malik Faiz kept him in a private torture cell to “make him confess to a crime he had never committed”.

Before the protest, the police had released a statement that they had attempted to arrest Dad on Saturday night. Resisting arrest, he had slit his throat with a sharp knife and killed himself, the police statement released to the media read.

This enraged Dad’s relatives who gathered outside the Mandra Police Station to protest. They were flanked by hundreds of other people. They chanted slogans against senior police officials and the Punjab government. The protest lasted for over three and a half hours, with the traffic being severely affected.

Even after the police had booked the four officials, the protesters refused to disperse, demanding that an FIR be registered against Mandra Police SHO and Gujar Khan DSP Iqbal Kazmi be transferred away. Police higher-ups negotiated with the protesters, assuring them of full investigation into the case. But it was only after assurance from a close relative of Prime Minister Raja Parvez Ashraf, according to the police, that they dispersed.

Last week, seven policemen of Wah Saddar Police were booked for torturing an Afghan national, wanted in the murder of a policeman, to death. Post-mortem confirmed that the suspect had been tortured.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 10^th, 2012.