May 10, 2005	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 1, 1426

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RAWALPINDI, May 9: A local police officer, booked in an alleged custodial death case, has got off the hook by striking “a deal” with the family of the victim, police sources said on Sunday. A senior police officer confided to Dawn that Station

House Officer of Sadiqabad police Ijaz Shah was no more an accused in the alleged torture of Hayat Khan, who had mysteriously disappeared in March together with the three interrogators.

The three policemen had disappeared when the higher police authorities and the Punjab chief minister intervened in the case.

A high police officer was said to have facilitated the deal through a political family of Islamabad.

Efforts are said to be underway for securing a similar deal for the other three police interrogators, as hope for finding Hayat Khan alive has been fading.

Hayat khan’s brother, Noorul Amin, was tight-lipped about the deal. He told this reporter that his family wanted him back dead or alive.

“They (police) killed my brother and hid his body to cover up their crime,” Mr Amin alleged in the FIR. “Hayat’s wife and five children are still waiting for him,” he said.

The one-member tribunal investigating the disappearance of Hayat Khan, 42, from the Sadiqabad police station has been unable to solve the mystery.

Hayat Khan, who hailed from the constituency of Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, was handed over to the police by some residents of Sadiqabad on March 11. Police said he was charged with attempting to steal an abandoned vehicle and possessing an unlicensed pistol.

The tribunal constituted by the Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has completed its report and submitted it to the chief minister. However, the chief minister’s action on the inquiry report is still awaited.

The source said according to the inquiry report Hayat Khan had been seen by the police station staff being taken away in a white car after midnight on March 12.

He said it could not be established whether Hayat Khan had died or was unconscious while being removed from the police station.

Police are still hunting for Sub-Inspector Ahmed Yar, who was interrogating Hayat Khan, head-constable Mohammad Iqbal and constable Akhtar Mehmood.

After failing to get justice from the local police, the relatives of Hayat Khan had requested Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao and the Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi to constitute a tribunal to look into the incident.

Brigadier Tauqeer, who heads the tribunal, had recorded the statements of ASP New Town Mirwaiz, SP City, SP Investigation and the people, who had captured Hayat Khan and handed him over to the police.