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| August 27, 2005 | Saturday | Rajab 21, 1426 |
‘Accused tortured in custody’
PESHAWAR, Aug 26: Local police investigators have been accused of torturing an accused in custody for extrating confessional statement. The accused, Ijaz Khan, told journalists on the premises of district courts on Friday that he had a dispute with his maternal uncle Sher Bahadur.
Ms Tallat Yasmeen, the wife of Mr Bahadur, who is deputy superintendent of the Peshawar central prison, used her influence to implicate him and his cousin Mujahid in a fabricated case, he claimed.
Ijaz, who could not walk properly due to severe thrashing by the police in the East Cant police station, was produced before the court of a judicial magistrate, after one day of his physical custody with the police. The court sent him to the prison where he feared he would be tortured again as Ms Tallat is the deputy superintendent there.
He said the investigation officer severely beat him, asking him to confess a crime he had not committed.
Ijaz and Mujahid have been charged in an FIR registered at East Cant police station on July 15, 2005, by Sher Bahadur, who alleged that both of them visited his residence and resorted to firing. He claimed that his wife Tallat and mother were also present there.
After the registration of the FIR, police arrested Mujahid after his pre-arrest bail was rejected. Mujahid was also allegedly tortured by the police and later on, when he was sent to the prison, he was beaten up there by some officials at the behest of Ms Tallat.
Later on, Mujahid was granted bail by a local court. Three days ago Ijaz was arrested in the same case. For two days he was kept at the police station and was produced before the court on Thursday.
Khanshewa Bibi, the mother of Ijaz, told Dawn that his son was innocent and her brother had falsely charged him in the instant case.
Weeping inconsolably, she said she could not see her son in such a pathetic condition.
Narrating her ordeal, the woman said that she was married to Taj Gul in Nowshera, whereas the sister of Taj Gul was married to her brother Sher Bahadur. She stated that some years ago Mr Bahadur divorced his wife, following which relations between her (Khanshewa) and Taj Gul also turned soar.
She said that seven years ago her husband also left her and her six children — four daughters and two sons. “We spent some days with Sher Bahadur and he has now been demanding money from us which he claimed he had spent on us,” she said. “We faced very hard times and it is always very difficult for us to make both ends meet.”
Khanshewa Bibi stated that now Mr Bahadur and Ms Tallat had been forcing her and her family to make rapprochement with Taj Gul. “How could we return to that person who had left us all alone,” she queried.
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