District jail: DIG to investigate torture claim

Petitioner alleged that jail officials stole Rs3,500 from him and tortured him.

LAHORE: An additional district and sessions judge has directed the Prisons DIG to conduct an inquiry into a prisoner’s claim that he was tortured by wardens. Murad Ali, the petitioner, submitted in his application that on July 9, chief head warder Munawwar, head warder Liaqat Ali and warder Muhammad Riaz entered his barracks in the district jail and searched him. He alleged that they stole Rs3,500 from him and tortured him. The three jail officials submitted that the petitioner had resisted the search, especially when they found hashish on another prisoner named Zulfiqar. They alleged that he had been selling hashish inside the jail. They said that when Ali was taken to the jail superintendent’s office for questioning, he smashed a brick into an official’s head.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 31^st, 2013.