HARIPUR: A criminal case was registered against four policemen, including an assistant sub-inspector, and SHO of Kotnajibullah police was suspended over custodial torture.

Jehangir Khan, a resident of Nartopa village, in a written complaint to SHO Kotnajibullah Siddique Shah stated that Panian police post in-charge ASI Saeed Shah had arrested a villager, Noman Afzal on Nov 10 for investigation into a robbery incident.

The same evening, he said the ASI contacted him by telephone and asked him to bring his son, Ehtesham Jehangir, a sub-engineer by profession, to the police post for an inquiry related to the robbery.

The complainant said he took his son to the police post where ASI Saeed Shah, a moharrar, Khalid Mehmood and two other policemen dragged his son to a room.

The police, he said, kept his son and Noman Afzal at the police post unlawfully without any complaint or registration of a case against them, and also tortured them for four days.

Heeding the complaint and on the appeal of local political figures, the police registered case against ASI Saeed Shah, moharrar Khalid Mehmood and two other unknown policemen under sections 337L II, 342/34 and 118-D of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Act, 2017.

The medical examination also confirmed the custodial torture on the two persons, the police and doctors said.

Meanwhile, the ASI, the moharrar and the SHO Kotnajibullah have been suspended.

It may be added that both SHO Siddique Shah and ASI Saeed Shah have faced similar charges of torture and illegal confinement of people in the past.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2021