LAHORE: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) director general Bashir Ahmed Memon on Sunday ordered an inquiry against those who allegedly made a suspect jump from the agency’s office building.

The director general asked FIA’s additional director Syed Farid Ali Shah to investigate the incident in which Sajid Masih jumped from the building and suffered critical injuries.

Khalid Anees, the FIA’s cyber crime head, told Dawn that the director general had constituted a team, led by Syed Farid Ali Shah, to conduct an inquiry against Inspector Khalid Saeed Shah, forensic department official Ali Afroz and two other officials for their alleged involvement in torturing and abusing Sajid Masih during interrogation.

Farid Shah visited Sajid Masih at Mayo Hospital on Sunday afternoon and recorded his statement. Sajid Masih, in his statement, accused some officials of torturing and abusing him.

A medical officer at Mayo Hospital told Dawn that Sajid Masih was in stable condition, but his legs and jaw were fractured in the fall.

On Saturday, an FIA team, led by Inspector Khalid Shah, was conducting an inquiry into a blasphemy case registered against Patras Masih at Shahdara police station for allegedly posting blasphemous material on Facebook.

The FIA team had called suspect Patras Masih’s cousin Sajid Masih to its headquarters for interrogation.

The officials were interrogating Sajid Masih when he jumped from the window of the fourth floor of the FIA building.

Later, Sajid Masih in his video message alleged that Inspector Khalid Shah had called him to the FIA headquarters to record his statement in the blasphemy case registered against his cousin a few days ago.

He said he asked the FIA official why he was called to the office.

The investigator told him “we have learnt you are a member of the Facebook group” which posted the blasphemous material.

He alleged that three to four officials had severely tortured him and also snatched his mobile phone.

He said the officials asked him to “sexually assault” his cousin Patras Masih. At this, he jumped off the building.

The FIA officials, however, denied the allegation. They said the suspect panicked after he was asked to unlock his mobile phone. “No one had even touched the suspect,” one of them said.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2018