PESHAWAR: Lawyers on Monday boycotted local courts for the third consecutive day against the alleged torture of a colleague by the police.

They even stopped policemen from producing suspects in different cases before the Judicial Complex.

Lawyers had begun to stay away from courts in the province last Friday on the call of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council, Peshawar High Court Bar Association and Peshawar District Bar Association.

During the protest, lawyers learned about the killing of two legal practitioners in Daska and quickly decided to observe boycott of courts on Tuesday (May 26).

In the morning, they didn’t allow policemen from producing suspected criminals in courts at the Judicial Complex.

Later, SP Afzal Khan met senior lawyers, including former PHCBA president Ishtiaq Ibrahim, and Ijaz Sabi, and informed them that the police registered an FIR against the police official accused of torturing lawyer Faqirullah Awan at the Pakha Ghulam police post in the provincial capital before locking him up in the quarter guard.

The SP also said appropriate action would be taken against the police official over the torture.

PHCBA president Fida Gul and Peshawar District Bar Association secretary general Mohammad Saeed Khan told reporters that the lawyers’ protest would continue until a proper action was taken against the policemen responsible for torture.

They said they would believe the police’s assurance only after seeing under which sections of law, FIR was registered in the case.

The lawyers said legal practitioner Faqirullah Awan had gone to the police post in connection with arrest of a person of his area and there he tried to stop the police officials from inflicting torture on another detained person.

The police officials claimed the lawyer in question had interfered with their official duty and even manhandled a police official.

The lawyers, however, denied it and asserted that the lawyer had suffered paralysis few months ago, so he couldn’t manhandle anyone.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2015

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