LAHORE: The Sherakot police lodged a case against two policemen and three others for allegedly sexually assaulting a youth at gunpoint in a “private torture cell”.

The police claimed to have arrested the prime suspect, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Imran, and a constable of security branch, Shafaqat. They claimed raids were being conducted to arrest other suspects.

According to sources, the 18-year-old victim, ‘M’, was a police informer and was subjected to sexual assault as a punishment over a monetary dispute.

As per the FIR, ASI Imran, called the boy by phone and asked him to reach a place to get the disputed amount – Rs1,700.

When he reached there, some plainclothesmen blindfolded and bundled him into a car and took him to a private building, used by police as a ‘torture cell’ where some other drunk men were already present.

The ASI, according to the FIR, locked up the boy in a bathroom for three hours. Later, the suspect forced the youth to get undressed at gunpoint and his drunk accomplice Shafaqat sexually assaulted him.

The complainant, father of the victim, further stated in the FIR that the ASI later took his son to the police station hurling threat that he would implicate him in motorcycle theft case if he told anybody about the rape.

He also threatened the victim to kill him in a fake encounter.

The case was lodged and arrests were made after the Saddar Division superintendent of police (SP) heard the complainant and the suspects, finding the allegations true.

The SP also directed the Sherakot police to shift the victim to the Mian Munshi Hospital for his medical examination.

Found shot dead: A young rickshaw driver was allegedly shot dead at his home in Manawan early on Monday.

Initial police reports suggested that Salman Butt was shot dead while he was asleep at his Adda Chabbil house. He was living at the ground floor and his sister at the upper portion of the house, a police official said adding his sister alerted the police saying he was lying [dead] with a bullet injury to his head.

On inquiring, she told the police that she was unaware of the incident and found him dead after she came to wake him up.

wall collapse: Four labourers suffered multiple injuries when an under-construction wall collapsed on them in Quaid-i-Azam Industrial Area.

Eight labourers were busy in work near Puli Stop when the incident occurred and four of them got trapped under the debris. Rescue 1122 teams rushed them to a hospital where the condition of one of them was stated to be serious. The injured were identified as Aftab, Aziz, Allah Dita and Boota.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2018