In custody: Battle for justice, or against it
Amir told The Express Tribune that his 30-year-old brother Asim Zameer had been languishing in police custody since November 13 without having committed any crime.
A resident of Domeli in Jhelum District and an employee of Pakistan Air Force, Asim along with his family came to Rawalpindi for shopping. They were in China Market when police officials stopped them.
“They took my brother to the City Police Station and produced him before Azam Butt, who was pretending to be the Station House Officer (SHO),” Amir alleged.
However Butt is not even deputed at the City Police Station, he added.
Around 10 minutes later a man and a veiled woman came there to identify Asim. Amir said, “The man said Asim was not one of the robbers, but the woman pointed to him and said ‘he is my accused’.”
Asim was transferred to the Airport police station since the FIR was registered there. The date of arrest was put down as November 16.
“The police obtained a 21-day physical remand for Asim but have not been able to gather any evidence against him,” his brother said.
Police even arrested Asim’s friend, Rashid Kiyani,
who was pursuing his case, Amir said.
He has sold his property and a general store to pay for his brother’s attorney. But things do not look good.
He said that police officials dressed in plain clothes have started visiting his house and are threatening him of serious consequences if he “makes a noise” about the incident.
Seeing no other way, he decided to approach media and appeal to Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for the recovery of his brother.
He also declared that if he is not listened to or is deprived of justice he will burn himself in front of the Supreme Court, “so that he may not need justice anymore”.
However, the Airport police maintained that the suspect had been sent to jail on judicial remand and the police were investigating into a case of robbery to ascertain his involvement.
Meanwhile, Airport Police SHO Chaudhry Khalid Mehmood told The Express Tribune that the suspect was not only identified as a suspected robber by the woman of the house where the robbery had occurred in Gulraiz Colony, but also by her house maid. “The maid had left her job at the house and was found by the police during investigations, came and independently identified Asim as the suspected robber,” said Mehmood.
He was arrested by the city police on the complaint of the lady who had seen and identified him in Raja Bazaar as the ‘suspected robber’. Later he was shifted to Airport Police station since the FIR of robbery was registered in its jurisdiction, Mehmood said.
“Asim also failed to justify his absence from his office on the dates when the robbery had taken place,” said the SHO Airport. “His department is being intimated about the developments in the case,” he added.
The SHO said that police were collecting necessary evidence to ascertain the facts and determine the level of his involvement in the robbery. “However, the suspect himself has not confessed to the crime,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 31st, 2010.
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