PESHAWAR: Pakistan Peoples Party MPA from Upper Dir, Sahibzada Sanaullah, has taken strong exception to the alleged violence on two young boys by the Rawalpindi’s Pirwadhai police and demanded of Prime Minister Imran Khan to order probe into the matter and award punishment to the relevant officials.

Talking to this correspondent on phone on Tuesday, the MPA said that two young labourers, Hayat Khan, son of Mohammad Alam, and Niaz Mohammad, son of Saeedullah Khan, of Sarbala village, Nihagdara, in Upper Dir were on way from Azad Kashmir to their home for Eidul Azha when police had detained them in Pirwadhai police station, Rawalpindi, for no fault of theirs.

“The two are labourers who used to go to Kashmir for labour. They were coming on the eve of Eidul Azha and as they reached Pirwadhai bus stand to catch a passenger vehicle the police caught them and snatched from them over Rs100,000,” the lawmaker said.

MPA claims two boys from Dir were tortured, deprived of cash by policemen

He claimed that the police party led by sub-inspector Amir Ali also resorted to violence on the boys who had sustained serious injuries on secret parts of their bodies. He said that the police released them on the same night, but did not return the cash and other valuables to them.

“The victims had timely informed me but I was in Quetta to help recover the deceased coalminers,” the MPA said and added that he had tried to contact the relevant police high-ups but to no avail and in a state of compulsion decided to observe sit-in outside the police station.

Mr Sanaullah appealed to Prime Minister Imran Khan and National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser to order probe into the incident, help recover the cash and other valuables to the victims and ensure protection to Pakhtuns in the Punjab province.

He said that many such cases had been reported during the previous government that Pakhtun labourers were beaten up, detained or forced to leave Punjab.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2018