Man freed from illegal detention

Muhammad Sabir released from PIB Colony police station on Friday where he was allegedly being detained illegally.

KARACHI: A man, identified as Muhammad Sabir, was released from the PIB Colony police station on Friday, where he was allegedly being detained illegally.

Judicial magistrate (east) Abdul Hafeez Mathelo conducted a raid at the police station on the orders of the sessions judge, who had been informed that Sabir was being detained illegally at the station, after which the judge ordered the PIB Colony SHO Akhtar Bangash and duty officer to appear in the court on Saturday along with complete records regarding Sabir’s detention.

On Friday, the division bench of the district and sessions judge (east) Sanaullah Ghauri heard a petition filed against Sabir’s illegal detention.

The petition was filed by Sabir’s mother, Naseem Begum, who claimed that her son had been tricked into going to the police station on the pretence of some “important work.

When Sabir did not return home by nightfall, Naseem Begum said that she had called the station, where the duty officer asked her for a large sum of money for her son’s release and threatened to charge Sabir with “serious offences” should she fail to pay.

After hearing the case, the judge ordered Mathelo to raid the PIB Colony station and release the detained.

The magistrate found Sabir in the station’s lock-up and released him.

Mathelo also checked the station’s records, where he found neither a roznamcha nor an FIR registered against Sabir.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2010.