MPA ordered police to beat me up, claims torture victim

Victim, identified as Abdul Qadir Khosa, claims ASI beat him up in the presence of SHO.

LAYYAH: A man who was allegedly beaten by police officials in Layyah and forced to lick the feet of an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) has come forward and claimed that the police tortured him on the orders of MPA Qaiser Magsi, Express News reported on Friday.

Identified as Abdul Qadir Khosa, he told Express News that an assistant sub-inspector beat him up in the presence of the SHO.

Khosa stated that he was picked up by the police in front of his mother from a field where he was working. He added the police also pushed his mother when she questioned their reason for picking up her son.

He further claimed that he was tortured in front of his family members.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on June 4 had taken notice of a video that showed the police torture, and ordered the district police officer (DPO) to submit a report on the video.

The MPA has denied that he was in the video or was in any way involved in the incident. He insisted that he remained unaware of the incident.

A police official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, had told The Express Tribune that the DPO had told the chief minister that it was impossible to identify the people in the video; none of the present police staff had any knowledge of the video or the incident and the footage could be more than a year old. Furthermore,  there was no proof that the incident had taken place in Layyah, he said.

Witness

Karam Hussain Shah, 66, a land owner in Ashar village in Chobara sub-district, had earlier said he had witnessed the torture. He had stated that the man in the video, Abdul Qadir Khosa, was a tenant on his lands and had worked on his fields for almost eight years.

He had said that about a month ago, Khosa was summoned by the police at the behest of Magsi apparently because “Khosa had spoken to him in a disrespectful manner”.

Shah added that the police had picked up Khosa from his fields and dragged him to the main road. He also claimed that Chobara SHO Yousaf Baloch was in the car and five policemen, four constables and an assistant sub-inspector had beaten Khosa up. Shah also stated that the video was genuine and the police were aware of it.