Family accuses police of keeping man in illegal custody

The family of a missing man has alleged that an assistant superintendent of police is keeping him in illegal custody.

GUJRANWALA: The family of a man who is missing since November 5 has alleged that an assistant superintendent of police is keeping him in illegal custody.

Faiz Ahmed, a resident of Dhol Ranjha village in Phalia tehsil, told The Express Tribune that Saddar police station’s ASI Abid Hussain forcibly entered his house on November 5 and arrested his only son, 23-year-old Tasawur Iqbal without producing a warrant or stating any reason. ASI Hussain denied this.

Faiz Ahmed said that when they pressed the ASI to inform them about the charges against their son, “he took out a gun and threatened us with it. He also told us to visit the police station the next day”.

The next day, Ahmed said, when they went to the Saddar police station they were told that Tasawur was charged with stealing some goats.

He said that the police, however, failed to produce anything in writing and when he asked if he could meet his son he was told to come back two days later.

He said that when he went to the police station after two days, ASI Hussain said that his son was no longer in custody. “He said that my son ran away and that they had no information about him,” Ahmed said. He added that he filed a complaint with the Mandi Bahauddin district police office but no action had been taken so far.

He said that the DPO directed a deputy superintendent of police to inquire into the matter. He said the DSP assured them that he would conduct a transparent inquiry and help them recover their son. However, he said no one from the police side showed up for the hearings and in the end the family too stopped going.

Muhammad Asif and Azam Sajjad, Faiz Ahmed’s neighbours, said that they were witnesses to the arrest. They said that the ASI took the man away on gunpoint, adding that they too had protested but he did not listen to them.

Talking to The Tribune, ASI Hussain, currently posted at Pahlianwali police station, said that he did not know anything about the family. He said he had never been to their village.

He added that the area was inhabited by a large number of organised criminals and speculated that the allegations could be part of a bid to damage the police’s reputation.

DSP Hafiz Ataur Rehman, the inquiry officer, said that his investigations could not establish the ASI or any other official’s involvement in the act.

He admitted that the ASI did not show up on the hearing day but said that he inquired through his sources in the department and was sure that the police was innocent.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2010.