FAISALABAD: A man, the suspect in a murder case, was allegedly tortured by the lawyers as he came to attend proceedings of the case in the court of the additional district and sessions judge on Aug 28.

The police are allegedly unwilling to take action against the attackers and the victim’s brother, Tanvir Rabbani, has sent an application to Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar, requesting him to look into the issue as the attackers include former district bar secretary Ijaz Ahmed.

Rabbani said the court had also cancelled the pre-arrest bail of his brother, Muhammad Shakeel, citing he did not appear in the court. He said the footage was available which showed that Shakeel was thrashed in the court which rejected his application due to his absence.

On Aug 6, Muhammad Imtiaz, brother of Ijaz Ahmed, was gunned down and a case was registered on complaint of Ahmed against five persons –Shakeel, Atta Farid and three unidentified persons.

Shakeel had filed an application with the district courts for the pre-arrest bail. The application was referred to ADSJ Inam Elahi. When Shakeel turned up at the district courts, Ijaz Ahmed and 20 others allegedly stopped Shakeel from attendance. Rabbani alleged that they thrashed Shakeel in the court before the bench and pulled him out of the court. They gave him a beating with kicks and fists outside the court as well before taking him to an undisclosed location. He alleged that Shakeel was tortured at the undisclosed location. Now the police arrested him after his repeated requests to trace him.

Rabbani said that on direction of the court, he had obtained the footage of torture; however, the part of the footage containing torture inside the court was not given to him due to the alleged pressure of the lawyers. He said two lawyers of Lahore who took up the case of Shakeel had also been thrashed by Ijaz and others.

Rabbani alleged that about eight to 10 policemen present near the ASJ court did not bother to stop the attackers.

Talking to Dawn, Ijaz Ahmed refuted the allegations levelled by Rabbani against him, saying he or any of his fellow lawyers had nothing to do with the news of torture on Shakeel. He added that his opponents had been spreading wrong information only to damage his reputation and influence the investigation into the case of his brother’s murder.

A police officer, on condition of anonymity, said proceedings on the application submitted by Rabbani were underway and action would be taken against those responsible.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2018