Tragic end: Teenage boy commits suicide in Abbottabad

18-year-old Ali Raza had filed complaint over police torture earlier this month.

HARIPUR: A teenage boy, who had attempted suicide earlier this week, died in Ayub Medical Complex in Abbottabad on Tuesday.

He has been identified as 18-year-old Ali Raza.

According to a police report filed by Amir Shehzad, the brother of the deceased, Raza had been depressed for over a week and struck his temple with a pair of scissors on September 24.

Raza was critically injured and rushed to Women and Children Hospital in Haripur. He was later referred to Ayub Medical Complex where he later succumbed to his injuries.

Cause and effect?

A few weeks before his death, Raza, his 16-year-old brother Qaiser Mehmood and their friend, Waseem, had filed a complaint against the City police for illegally detaining and torturing him, for five days.

They had lodged the complaint with a judicial magistrate, seeking medical examination and registration of a case. However, the magistrate rejected the complaint. The three men had approached the court of a district and sessions judge in Haripur to address their grievances.

Disclaimer

Meanwhile, Haripur Deputy Superintendent Ishtiaq Khan rejected the allegation of police torture. He insisted the teenagers were arrested on September 15 on charges of wandering the streets and were released the following day.

“Raza’s suicide is not connected with the case,” he said. “He decided to take the step after a dispute with his family.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2015.