LAHORE: The Punjab Home Department on Monday suspended a senior doctor and three police officers of the Camp Jail for not removing the handcuffs of the late former chief executive officer of the Sargodha university’s Lahore campus even after his death.

The department’s notification stated that Dr Ahmed Zulfiqar, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Abdul Qayyum, Head Constable Muhammad Azam and Constable Imran, who were stationed at the Inspectorate of Prisons, had been suspended for negligence in responsibilities.

Take a look: University official’s death

Prisons Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Malik Mubashir submitted an initial report on the incident stating that the prison officials handed over Mian Javed Ahmed to police without the handcuffs. The personnel on duty, including Head Constable Muhammad Azam, Constable Imran and Khalil, handcuffed the suspect at the hospital.

It further stated that the handcuffs on the body belonged to the police, adding that the prison officials do not have handcuffs on them as per standards. The report also quoted rescue members as saying that Ahmed was brought from the jail without the handcuffs.

However, in his statement, Head Constable Azam said they had followed the standard operating procedure by not removing handcuffs without a magistrate’s orders.

Earlier, according to prison officials, Javed had suffered a “cardiac arrest” on Friday and was shifted to Services Hospital where he died. However, pictures of the body with the handcuffs still on went viral on social media and drew criticism towards authorities.

Javed, who was under investigation in a corruption case, had been arrested in October along with Sargodha university’s former vice chancellor Dr Muhammad Akram Chaudhry and four other officials.

INJURED: Ten people were injured in two separate incidents in the city on Monday.

In the first incident, three people were injured when a gas cylinder exploded in a shop in Lidher village. All the injured were shifted to the Lahore General Hospital (LGH) and were said to be stable.

In the other incident, seven passengers were injured when three motorcycles collided with each other in Jia Bagga. The injured were shifted to LGH for treatment and were said to be stable.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2018