Law unto himself: 15-year-old tortured by landlord

Father says the boy was hung upside down from a tree, put in a box.

FAISALABAD:

A 15-year-old boy was detained and tortured by a landlord in Chak Jhumra on Wednesday, his father claimed.

The father, Sohail Ahmed, told police that his son, Muhammad Saddam, a resident of Chak No 164-RB, was accused of having stolen Rs2,000 of an influential landowner, Afzal, on Wednesday.

Ahmed said Afzal and his accomplices, Rashid and Ataur Rehman, had abducted Saddam and taken him to a dera where they tortured him.

“They hung him upside down from a tree…later they put him in a box,” he said.

He said when he went to Chak Jhumra police Afzal was already there to register a robbery case against Saddam.



City Police Officer’s spokesman, Ameer Nasir, told The Express Tribune that the police were waiting for the boy’s medical examination report before a case could be registered.

He said, “CPO Riffat Mukhtar Raja has ordered the SHO to deal with the matter in accordance with law.”

Saddam’s uncle, Muhammad Rafiq, alleged that police were reluctant to register a case against Afzal.

He said, “Saddam is only a child... we not only apologised but also returned the [stolen] money.”

“Nobody should be allowed to take law into their hand,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2013.