KARACHI, Aug 26: Saleem Khan, one of the two robbery suspects who were allegedly burnt by police officials in the lock-up of the Gizri police station on Monday, succumbed on Thursday night at civil hospital.
He had sustained 98 per cent burns, according to doctors.
The other suspect, Ameer Zada, with 100 per cent burns, had died on Wednesday night. Meanwhile, the postmortem examination of the robbery suspect, Ameer Zada, who was burnt in the lock-up of the Gizri police station along with another suspect, Saleem Khan, on Monday, was performed by a team of doctors in the presence of a judicial magistrate early on Thursday.
Hospital sources said that after his death, a magistrate had been called to fulfil the legal procedures under section 176 of the CrPC. The magistrate turned up at 2am on Thursday and the postmortem was performed by a team of four doctors - Dr Farhat Mirza, Dr Mehboob, Dr Saleem and Dr Kaleem Shaikh.
The postmortem examination report has, however, been reserved till the receipt of histopathological examination and chemical test, the sources added. The doctors' team appeared sure that the postmortem examination would determine whether the victim had set himself on fire or been put on fire.
Though a case of criminal negligence was registered against four police officials, only two of them have been arrested so far. Another nine of their colleagues were placed under suspension but none of them has been taken into custody even for questioning, the sources said.
Saleem, 41, and Ameer Zada, 35, had on Tuesday recorded their statements before a judicial magistrate and both the victims had accused police officials of putting them on fire.
Sources said that before his death, Ameer Zada had stated in his 'dying declaration' that police officials of investigation and operations wings of the Gizri police station had put them on fire.
Despite this dying declaration, the Gizri police appeared reluctant in registering a murder case against their colleagues or arresting them. Some senior police officials, requesting anonymity, claimed that there were two motorcycles parked inside the lock-up on the day the incident took place.
The suspects, they added, might have drawn petrol from these vehicles to commit suicide by setting themselves on fire. The police also claimed that the relatives of Saleem Khan, who had come to see him, had brought a packet of cigarette along with a match box for the suspect and the very match box might have been used by the suspects in their suicide bid.
However, Saleem's family members rejected the police claim and clarified that they had brought and handed over a lunch box and a packet of cigarette to a police official because Saleem was not present in the lock-up at that time. They argued that police officials always checked whatever brought by outsiders for delivery to a suspect in lock-up.
They said that they had never delivered anything directly to Saleem. Whatever handed over to police for him did not include any matchbox, they added. Hospital sources revealed that nails of both the suspects had been removed, evidently by force, which suggested that they had been subjected to inhuman torture.
Meanwhile, family members of Saleem Khan have claimed that some people, seemingly personnel of forces, had came to their home in Shireen Jinnah Colony. The men in civvies were asking about those attending Saleem Khan at the hospital, they added.
