ISLAMABAD: Three police officials, including a sub-inspector, were booked for keeping a man in illegal confinement and asking for extortion for his release, the police said on Monday.

The victim, identified as Raja Mohammad Adnan, told Dawn that six men in plainclothes had intercepted him at Dharik Mohri on Feb 1 when he was on his way home.

“They said I was a drug peddler and asked me to hand over narcotics,” he said.

Mr Adnan said he asked the men to identify themselves and said a simple body search could prove that he did not have any drugs on him.

The victim said the men then introduced themselves as police officials and said that they had received information of him being a drug peddler and that he was carrying drugs when they had intercepted him.

According to the victim, the men then threatened him and said it would be better for him if he handed over the drugs there instead of being taken to the police chowki.

Mr Adnan was then blindfolded and taken to the police chowki where he was subjected to “torture”.

“My hands were tied and I was hung upside down,” he said, adding that he was also ‘water boarded’.

The police officials are said to have asked him to either hand over the drugs that he was supposed to have been carrying or pay money for his release.

The victim said he was tortured till next morning. Meanwhile, his family had started a search for him. The police officials who had detained him at first denied they had custody of him and later admitted to it.

Mr Adnan’s father-in-law was asked for Rs300,000 for his release. The victim said the officials then agreed on Rs50,000 after the payment of which he was released.

After he was released, Mr Adnan found that he was detained at a police chowki in F-11 and he later lodged a complaint against the policemen on Feb 5 under various sections of the PPC.

An investigation was started and the policemen against whom the complaint was lodged were served show cause notices to clear their positions.

Operation against drug dealers sought

Residents of areas near Tarnol have demanded that an operation be conducted against drug dens in the Dorah Village near F-17.

This is the same village were two police officials were stoned to death, reportedly by drug dealers, when they went into the village looking for a drug peddler in 2013.

Residents submitted copies of their appeal for action against drug dealers in the offices of senior police officers. In their appeal, addressed to the interior minister, residents have brought the issue of heroin being sold in the village by dozens of drug dealers without any hindrance into the minister’s attention. They have said the drugs business has had an adverse affect on nearby localities and that the youth of the area are very vulnerable to drug addiction.

In their application, residents said the volume of drugs sold in a month in the village is said to be worth over Rs150 million to Rs200 million.

They have said that the drug trafficking business cannot be run without the protection of the police.

“Two police personnel [were] arrested last week for being involved in protecting drug business in Dorah Village,” the appeal says.

They have asked for a comprehensive joint operation by the police and Rangers under the supervision of senior police officials, not lower than the rank of SP, to root out the menace from the area once and for all, and before it spreads to the federal capital

Published in Dawn February 7th, 2017