RAHIM YAR KHAN: The incidents of illegal detention of “suspects” in private torture cells by police employees and their later release allegedly after taking bribe are on the rise in the district.

Three such incidents of taking people “hostage” or keeping them in alleged illegal police custody have been reported during the current month in the district.

According to sources, in the first case a sub-inspector of City A Division police, Jabran Jarad, with two constables and a citizen, Sajid Ali, allegedly picked a man, Javed Iqbal, on April 11, 2019, from Chowk Bahadurpur on the National Highway, when he was returning from Karachi with his family.

Javed’s father, Abdul Hameed, filed an application to the district police officer (DPO), alleging that SI Jarad took his son to an unknown place in a private car and tortured him for 20 days while keeping him in illegal custody. He mentioned the two police constables and Sajid as the accomplices.

Hameed said that when he contacted the SI for the release of his son, Jarad initially demanded Rs500,000 and the registration book of his tractor. However, after bargaining with Hameed, the SI agreed on taking Rs50,000, but did not release Javed.

The father stated that later when because of continuous torture the kidneys of Javed failed, Jarad shifted him to the Sheikh Zayed Medical College Hospital (SZMCH), where condition of his son turned critical.

On the complaint, DPO Umar Farooq Salamat probed the matter and finding his subordinate guilty ordered registration of an FIR (249/19) against SI Jarad, the two constables and Sajid on April 22, 2019 under section 342 of the Pakistan Penal Code and 155 C of Police Order 2002.

However, Hameed said, none of the suspects was arrested by the station house officer concerned and Jarad secured an interim bail. Jarad had been previously suspended from service many times on charges of misuse of power.

Similarly, a widow, Aziz Mai, of Mouza Nawan Arian, stated in a video message that Head Tallay Wali police check post in-charge Javed Gopang, at the behest of Khanpur Saddar SHO, detained her son Muhammad Jamil from her house on April 18, 2019.

She said that despite repeated visits to the Khanpur Sadar police station, the SHO neither informed her about her son’s whereabouts, nor produced him in the court.

She alleged that later Gopang demanded Rs200,000 from her for the release of Jamil. She said that when she refused to pay the amount, the policeman uploaded an audio clip of the torture of Jamil on social media.

She said Jamil was still facing the police torture.

In the third incident occurring on April 12, 2019, Rahim Yar Khan police allegedly picked a trader of Riwaz Gardens, Lahore, Aamir Bashir, allegedly at the behest of some politically influential traders.

Sources said that the police allegedly registered a back date FIR against the trader and kept him in “illegal custody”.

When Bashir’s son Daynial Aamir highlighted the issue and involved some journalists, the police produced the trader before a court on April 20, 2019, saying he had been arrested from Sadiqabad.

Later Bashir told the court that the police kept him in illegal detention at different places for a week.

Police spokesperson Zeeshan Randhawa told Dawn that Jarad was suspended from service by the DPO, adding that the SI had been twice suspended for misuse of power in the past.

About Aziz Mai’s case, he said there were 16 different FIRs filed against her son Jamil, claiming police did not arrest him so far. He alleged Aziz Mai was defaming the police using social media to save her “criminal” son.

However, he confirmed arrest of Aamir Bashir, claiming that he was held from Sadiqabad.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2019