LARKANA: The Larkana senior superintendent of police on Wednesday suspended SHO, writing head constable and constable of Allahabad police station on charges of being involved in the murder of a youth in police custody.

An FIR was also registered at the police station on the orders of SSP Shabbir Sethar against six persons, including SHO Anees Ahmed Soomro, WHC Mithal Qureshi, in-charge of Mumtaz Colony police post Ahmed Ali Chandio and head constable Nadir Sargani and others over custodial death of Salman Shaikh, 20.

Ms Shezadi, late Salman’s mother, alleged in the FIR registered under Section 302 and 34 of PPC that the suspended SHO along with a number of private persons broke into her house on Tuesday and picked up her son over suspicions of his involvement in the kidnapping of a girl. Police tortured him to death at the police station and brought his body in an ambulance to the house late at night, she said.

A police source said the victim had confessed to have kidnapped the girl and was leading them in a car to the place where she had been kept when the vehicle fell into a water channel along Qambar-Shahdadkot road and resulted in the death of the suspect and serious injuries to Ghulam Shabbir Sahito, friend of the in-charge of Mumtaz Colony police post.

The source said that Ahmed Ali Chandio, the in-charge of Mumtaz Colony police post, who had also suffered injuries in the car accident, had been shifted to Karachi in precarious condition.

Earlier, the relatives of late Salman demonstrated at SSP roundabout by placing the body on the road. They alleged that the SHO was demanding Rs300,000 bribe to release the victim, which they failed to pay and the next day they were handed over the body.

The DSP of civil lines later persuaded the protesters to end agitation over assurance that justice would be served to them.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2018