May 16, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 10, 1429

KARACHI, May 15: A doctor who was kidnapped, tortured and finally put into a police lockup by his ‘kidnappers’ on April 3 is still baffled about the motive for his kidnapping.

“It’s been now over a month since I approached the governor of Sindh, the provincial police officer and the home minister about my case, but it seems that like all other such cases, they have forgotten about it,” says Dr Hasan Jalisi.

He told Dawn that on April 3 someone telephoned him to say that he wanted to get his mother examined and it was urgent. The doctor asked him to bring the patient to Taj Medcial Centre on Khayaban-i-Shahbaz.

At around 6.30pm, three to four plainclothes men, whom the doctor later identified as policemen, entered his clinic and took him along at gunpoint.

A white car followed by a blue pickup truck was used by the armed men.

“Ignoring my protest, they tied my hands together and blinded-folded me near the Village restaurant and forced me into a shop, or a house, where they beat me up mercilessly for several hours and deprived me of Rs200,000 and cellphones,” Dr Jalisi said.

At around two in the morning, they took me to the Preedy police station, where I was formally charged and the arrest was shown in two false cases (in which the former city police chief had already ordered reinvestigation and constituted an inquiry board), the doctor claimed.

Recalling his ordeal, which didn’t stop at his being implicated in the two cases, Dr Jalisi said that four people came inside the lock-up and took him out and into the SHO’s office, where he was beaten up and tortured again by them and some other men. After about an hour, I was thrown back into the lockup, the doctor said.

Giving details of the two FIRs, which were shown as a pretext for his ordeal, Dr Jalisi said that when the FIRs were registered he was not in the country and he was not nominated in them either.

FIR no 215/2007, registered under Section 506-B/337-A(i)/504 of the Pakistan Penal Code, was lodged on April 7, 2007 on the complaint of Najma Begum, an employee at Dr Tanveer Ultrasound Clinic, Haroon Chambers.

On Sept 7, another FIR (401/2007) was registered on the complaint of Dr Tanveer Zubari under Section 416/420/506-B/34 of the PPC. In the text of the FIR, it was stated by the complainant that she was harassed by Dr Jalisi’s staff.

On an application submitted by Dr Hasan Jalisi about his false implication in the case (FIR 215/2007), the former CCPO ordered setting up of a board comprising three senior officers.

According to Dr Jalisi, the board on May 14 found the FIR (215/2007) not fit to be pursued.

Expressing his concern over the police inaction over his kidnapping and torture, Dr Jalisi identified three of the persons involved in his kidnapping as policemen. Sketches were also drawn of the three men with the help of the CPLC, and the suspects turned out to be policemen.

In his letter to the governor of Sindh, Dr Hasan Jalisi wrote: “I understand that you were notified of this incident by my father (Prof Dr M. Jalisi) while it was still in progress, and that your personal intervention probably caused my release from the kidnappers’ gang. Therefore, as their identities are probably known to you, I request that your office take immediate punitive action against all criminals involved in my kidnapping and torture”.

Saddar SP Dr Amir Shaikh, who was a member of the inquiry board, quoting the Saddar DSP, who carried out the inquiry, said: “Why did Dr Jalisi not complain about his kidnap and torture before the magistrate when he was presented to him by the police after his arrest. However, I suggest that the matter be referred to the SSP of Investigation for an inquiry.”