MULTAN: The family of Malik Ishfaq Langrial who died of alleged police torture during a protest rally in Lahore on Nov 5 has no hope for justice.

Langrial was the finance secretary of the Vehari chapter of the Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI), which alleged that its office-bearer had died after being injured by a shell of teargas but the government claimed that he had died because of cardiac arrest.

“My brother was completely fit physically and there is no reality in the claim of the government that he had died of cardiac arrest,” says Malik Imtiaz Langrial, the brother of the deceased farmer. He says the family has almost no hope for justice as it’s the same government that did nothing in the Sahiwal shooting case.

He termed the government responsible for the death of his brother who went to Lahore to seek rights as a farmer. Ishfaq Langrial was 44 years old and left behind a widow and a daughter, a student of 12th class.

“He was standing beside me and was addressing the protesters when he lost control of himself because of a water cannon fired by the police. He was trying to stand up when a shell of tear gas hit him,” says PKI President Chaudhry Anwar.

He adds that 14 farmers went missing after the police attacked the protesters, six of them were later released by police after treatment while eight are still missing.

“Maybe they are being treated somewhere. Probably they are seriously injured and the police are hiding them.”

Mr Anwar says the PKI had filed petitions in the Lahore High Court in Lahore and Multan with the demand for the judicial inquiry into the incident.

“The law minister first informed me that Langrial had died because of cardiac arrest but now the Lahore CCPO is saying that he died because of poison. We do not trust police and the government. That’s why we demand an inquiry by a judicial commission.”

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2020