August 21, 2003	Thursday	Jumadi-us-Sani 22, 1424

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MULTAN, Aug 20: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has demanded an open judicial inquiry into the death of a man in custody of Jalalpur Pirwala Saddar police station.

Mukhtar Husain, a resident of Mauza Shah Rasool, was picked up by police on Aug 1 last to interrogate him for his alleged involvement in theft of a pair of cows. However, he was found dead the next day.

The police registered an FIR under sections 302, 148 and 149 PPC against those, who had accused Mukhtar of stealing cattle, and later arrested two of them, Barat Husain and Sajjad Husain.

The HRCP sent a fact-finding mission comprising its Multan Task Force coordinator, Advocate Rashid Rahman, Pervez Iqbal Ansari, Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, Aasia Perveen and Ashiq Husain, to Jalalpur.

Information gathered by the HRCP mission revealed that neither the deceased nor any member of his family had any kind of criminal record. Belonging to a family of labourers, the fact finders learnt that Mukhtar used to do menial work in and outside Jalalpur Pirwala.

They also gleaned that Mukhtar did not go to the outhouses of the area landlords, who often chastised him for what they thought his “rebellious” attitude. A lumberdar, Muhammad Nawaz, was found to be the main opponent of the deceased.

On Aug 1 last, Barat Husain and Sajjad Husain, of Mauza Bait Wahiwala, reached Mauza Shah Rasool in search of their cows. Nawaz, according to reports, alleged that he saw the previous night a pick-up parked outside Mukhtar’s house. He said the vehicle disappeared early in the morning, raising suspicion that Mukhtar might be involved in the theft.

Thereafter, Mukhtar was called at the lumberdar’s outhouse and chargesheeted for theft, an accusation which he denied. He was handed over to the police.

The HRCP report added that the police team took Mukhtar to Mauza Miran Mala at the dera of Fayyaz Laang instead of taking him to the police station. The policemen tortured him at the outhouse and police station all the night.

Next day when his brother Khadim Husain and Ilahi Bakhsh visited the police station, they were informed about his death. The deceased left behind an eleven-year-old daughter and an eight-year-old son.

The police, however, registered a murder case on the report of ASI Haq Nawaz, the official who took him into custody from the lumberdar’s dera and later interrogated him.

The report further revealed that when the heirs asked for a postmortem, the body was made a rolling stone among the Nishtar Hospital, Jalalpur Pirwala THQ Hospital and Multan Civil Hospital in four days. The postmortem confirmed that the deceased was subject to torture before his death.

The police claimed that when they arrested Mukhtar from the lumberdar’s outhouse, he was in bad condition and died on way to the police station.

There was no justification for the police to arrest a “tortured” person, the human rights team wondered, demanding an on-the-spot open judicial inquiry into the incident, stern action against the police officials responsible for the death of the innocent.

It also sought financial help for the widow and children of the deceased.