MANSEHRA: Deputy Inspector General of Police, Hazara Range, Qazi Jamilur Rehman has ordered an inquiry against the Darband police station house officer over the alleged torture of a pregnant woman.

The nine months pregnant woman had given birth to a stillborn baby on Tuesday night.

“I have formed an inquiry team led by additional superintendent of police, Mansehra, Jamil Akhtar asking it to produce the report in 24 hours,” the DIG said in an order.

He said strict departmental action would be taken against the SHO and others if they’re found to be involved in the alleged torture.

The woman claimed that SHO Mohammad Nawaz along with police officials entered her home in Baradar village of Oghi tehsil at night after scaling the wall and kicked and thrashed her.

She said her husband was not home at that time.

Meanwhile, additional superintendent of police Jamil Akhtar met the woman’s husband, who claimed that the police raided the house falsely suspecting his involvement in narcotics sales.

He warned that he would commit self-immolation in public if justice wasn’t dispensed to him and family over the killing of baby.

POPPY CRACKDOWN: The residents of Lower Kohistan district on Wednesday demanded of the district administration to crack down on poppy and cannabis growers in the district.

“There are many villages in the district, where people grow poppy and hemp against the law. An action should be taken against them without delay,” prayer leader Maulana Ahmad Ali told a khuli kutchery organised by the administration in the far-off Sipro valley here on Wednesday.Deputy superintendent of police (central) Ashiq Hussain, who was also in attendance, asked the people to identify poppy and hemp growers.

Deputy commissioner Khalid Khan said most roads damaged by the recent flash floods in the district had been reopened to traffic.

He said the district administration had formally informed the provincial government about the damage caused by flooding to public life and property.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2020