KARACHI: A senior labour leader died under mysterious circumstances in police custody on Sunday.

Babu Karim Jan, the president of the Gadani ship-breaking workers union, was arrested by the Iqbal Market police from his Metroville residence late on Saturday night.

The police claimed that he died because of heart attack. However, his friends and family, who held a protest demonstration outside the Karachi Press Club, said that he was killed because of police torture.

The protesters said that the police conducted a raid on his residence at around 1.30am and took Karim Jan and his son Amin into custody.

They allegedly dragged the labour leader, who was in his 60s, from his house and threw him in a police mobile van, where he died.

Later, the police abandoned the body near his house and tried to escape, but area people gathered at the spot, made videos from their mobile phones, and tried to get hold of them. However, they managed to escape.

Police say Karim Jan died of heart attack during raid; relatives want murder case registered against raiding team

The deceased’s son, Amin, told media that he informed the raiding team of police that his father was a cardiac patient but they did not listen to him, dragged the elderly man and then threw him in their mobile van.

SSP-West Shoukat Ali Khatian told Dawn that the police had arrested the late labour leader. “There were two FIRs registered against him on charges of attempted murders and the police arrested him in the same cases,” he said.

However, the senior officer did not divulge any further details about the incident or the cases against him.

The body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for completing required medico-legal formalities.

A post-mortem examination was conducted in the presence of a judicial magistrate concerned by a team of doctors comprising additional police surgeon Saleem Shaikh, Dr Abid Haroon and Dr Pervez Makhdoom.

Dr Shaikh told Dawn that they took samples and sent them for histopathological and chemical examination and reserved the cause of death till their report.

Later in the evening, relatives and community members held a protest demonstration outside the KPC.

The protesters accused that the police of “brutally” torturing and killing the elderly person.

They demanded the arrest of responsible policemen and registration of a murder case against them.

Meanwhile, National Trade Union Federation leader Nasir Mansoor told Dawn that the death of senior trade unionist was the latest example of “police brutality” in the city and other parts of the country.

He demanded that the policemen be arrested forthwith.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2019