‘Police brutality’: Family protests after man dies in custody

The CPO has ordered an inquiry into the incident.

FAISALABAD:

Relatives of a man who died in police custody staged a protest on Wednesday, claiming he had been tortured to death.

According to Thikriwala police, Shabbir Hussain, resident of Chak 275-JB Pencehra, was under arrest on the suspicion of keeping illegal weapons. Police claimed he died on his way to hospital after ‘falling unconscious’ in the police station.

Thikriwala police SHO Mian Abid claimed that Shabbir “got frightened” when he was locked up in the cell. “He started feeling severe pain in his chest and fell unconscious behind the bars at the police station. We rushed him to hospital but he died,” he said.

However, relatives stated that Shabbir was severely tortured by police and died before he could be shifted to the hospital. The family further maintained that Shabbir had a licensed gun and did not posses any illegal weapon.

“He pleaded that he had no illegal weapons, but the police tortured him to make him confess,” said Ghulam Fareed, a close relative of the victim.

He claimed that police killed Shabbir because they had taken money from his rivals.

“The police did this on the instigation of his rivals who plotted with the police to kill Shabbir,” Fareed said.

Taking notice of the incident, City Police Office Dr Haider Ashraf formed a two-member inquiry committee, comprising the Madina Town and Iqbal Town SPs, to investigate the incident. The committee has been directed to submit a report within a day.

The victim’s body was shifted to Allied Hospital, where a medical board would conduct an autopsy.

Allied Hospital Medical Superintendent (MS) Dr Rashid Maqbool said that the four-member medical board would try to find the real cause of Shabbir’s death. He said the victim’s blood samples had been sent to the laboratory.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2014.