Homicide or suicide?: Man dies in police lock-up

Conflicting claims by police and relatives on cause of death; judicial inquiry ordered.

ISLAMABAD:

A man accused of theft was found dead in the lock-up at the Kohsar Police Station on Tuesday.

The police claimed that the man committed suicide, but his family alleged that the police tortured him to death.

According to the police, Sabir Masih, who was on a physical remand in connection with a theft case, committed suicide by hanging himself using the drawstring from his shalwar in the washroom located inside the lockup.

Later, the police shifted the body to Polyclinic Hospital for post mortem. The autopsy is being conducted by a five-member medical board and the report will be released on Wednesday.

Later, around 200 relatives of the victim and members of the capital’s Christian community staged a protest against “the killing” and raised slogans against the police.

“Circumstantial evidence suggests that the police tortured him to death,” said rights activist and former federal minister J Sailk.

Meanwhile taking notice of the incident, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has ordered a judicial inquiry.

City Superintendent of Police Mustansar Feroz said, “We are waiting for the autopsy report to determine the real cause of death. After receiving the report, we will be in a position to say something.”

He confirmed that the interior minister has ordered the inquiry into the incident.

Kohsar Station House Officer Hakim Khan said Masih and three other accused were in the lock-up. “On Tuesday morning at 5:30 am, the accused was found dead in the washroom. He had committed suicide by hanging himself.”

Medical board member Dr Tanveer said there were no signs of torture on the body, only a V-shaped mark around the neck. “At this stage we can’t say whether it was a homicide or suicide. We will release the report on Wednesday,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12^th, 2014.