Habeus corpus plea: Police search for body of missing man feared killed in custody

RPO tells LHC may have body in custody, DNA test to be done.

LAHORE:

The Faisalabad regional police officer (RPO) told the Lahore High Court on Monday that police were looking for the body of a missing man feared to have been killed and dumped in a canal by the police.

The court had sought a response from the RPO to a habeus corpus petition filed by Nighat Bano for the recovery of her husband Khwaja Ammar Azeem, who had not been seen since he was picked up by the police from his workplace.

The RPO told the court that police had found a body from a canal in Faisalabad that may belong to the missing man. It would be sent for a DNA test for identification, a process which would take two weeks, he added.

He said that he feared that the policemen who picked Azeem up had killed him in custody and then dumped his body in the canal. He said that the Irrigation Department had been asked to stop the water supply in the canal so they could search it for the body.

Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik expressed dismay over the RPO’s report, saying that there seemed to be no difference between the police and criminals. He asked how the policemen could sleep at night after torturing and killing people. He directed the RPO to complete the investigation of the case and submit it to the court by September 20.

The RPO had earlier told the court that a case had been registered against the SHO concerned and five other policemen for kidnapping Azeem. The SHO and a constable were on remand while four were yet to be arrested. He said that all six had been terminated from service.

The petitioner said that she had provided senior police officials CCTV footage of the factory where Azeem had worked, showing him being arrested. He had worked at a factory owned by former Punjab opposition leader Raja Riaz, she said.

The petitioner said police had told her that her husband had escaped from custody and not been seen since. She said that she suspected that the policemen had killed her husband.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 10^th, 2013.