FAISALABAD: Saddar police registered a murder case on Tuesday night against five prisoners of the Central Jail for torturing a fellow inmate to death in a barrack.

Submitting an application to police, Basharat Baig, assistant superintendent of the jail, said murder convict Asif had an argument on Sunday night with another prisoner, Muhammad Ramzan, in barrack No 1.

Asif’s fellow inmates, including Shan Ali, Muhammad Waseem, Sajjad and Rashid started thrashing Ramzan. He was rushed to the DHQ hospital in a critical condition, but died on the way.

SEALED: Deputy Commissioner (DC) Saifullah sealed the arms licencing branch over alleged illegalities being committed by its employees.

The branch in-charge, Rana Babar, was suspended from service and the DC has appointed additional deputy commissioner (headquarters) Qaiser to probe into the issue.

The DC told Dawn that he had received information that the branch was issuing fake arms dealership licences. The branch in-charge had been suspended in this regard; he was already facing an inquiry in the Anti-Corruption Establishment. Babar had been terminated in the past by former district coordination officer Noorul Amin Mengal on charges of malpractices in the branch. However, he managed to get reinstated and got posted in the same branch.

This is the second branch the DC has sealed within a couple of weeks. Earlier, he had sealed the coordination branch on charges of issuing petrol pump licences allegedly at the behest of some politicians, ignoring the ban imposed by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra).

An inquiry was also ordered against the branch employees, which is yet to be concluded.

Talking about the delay in wrapping up the inquiry into the coordination branch functions, the DC said that some employees had gone to courts and Ogra had yet to provide information. He said Ogra had been sending information gradually and the inquiry could only be completed once they had all the information.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2019