KARACHI: A suspected criminal, who had been arrested by the Landhi police a couple of days ago and according to the law enforcement agency was badly injured with multiple wounds when he was taken into custody, died during treatment at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) on Thursday.

The hospital officials said that the 38-year-old man had multiple bruises and died within two hours after he was moved to the health facility by “unknown persons”.

Although the police confirmed his arrest for multiple criminal charges, the move fell short to convince the opposition in the Sindh Assembly, members of which staged a protest with the family members of the deceased outside the JPMC and demanded probe into his “custodial death”.

The protest prompted higher authorities to order an inquiry into the circumstances which led to his death.

Dr Seemin Jamali, executive director of the JPMC, told Dawn that Abdul Qadir, 38, was brought to the emergency section of the hospital at around 2.30pm on Thursday. It was not known who brought him to the hospital. There were multiple bruises on his body. There was also a head injury while his one eye was blackened due to impact of wounds. He died during treatment within two hours, added Dr Jamali.

Police Surgeon Dr Qarar Ahmed Abbasi told Dawn that at night the deceased was in custody of the Landhi police, whose officials had arrived at the mortuary of the hospital.

A doctors’ team under supervision of the magistrate concerned would carry out a post-mortem examination to ascertain the exact cause of his death.

A senior police officer, who wished not to be named, told Dawn that Abdul Qadir and another suspect were allegedly detained by a law-enforcement agency.

Their custody was given to the Steel Town police on October 21 and later on, Abdul Qadir was handed over to the Landhi police station as there was one criminal case registered against him.

The officer added that he was not arrested by the police.

However, Steel Town police SHO Shakir Ali told Dawn that they had arrested Abdul Qadir on Oct 21.

The SHO added that the suspect had sustained injuries and he had told the police that he had received those injuries five days prior to his arrest due to a fall.

The SHO said that subsequently, the Landhi police took him into custody on Oct 23 as he was wanted in a robbery-related case registered there.

The death of the suspect triggered protest by relatives outside the JPMC, which was joined by PTI lawmaker Haleem Adil Sheikh. The protesters claimed that he was tortured to death by the police in custody.

Meanwhile, DIG East Amir Farooqi said that he had ordered an inquiry into the circumstances, which led to the death of the suspect in custody.

The senior officer added that Malir SSP Ali Raza had been appointed an inquiry officer.

Mr Farooqi said that the police were waiting for doctors’ report about cause of death to proceed further.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2019