TOBA TEK SINGH: In an effort to control incidents of torture of the suspects in custody, Faisalabad City Police Officer Omer Saeed Malik has issued a pro forma to protect the rights of suspects that will be signed by the suspects, investigating officers (IOs) and station house officers (SHOs) of the police stations concerned.

Addressing the media on Sunday, the CPO said the IOs had been made bound in the pro forma to inform the suspects that they had the constitutional rights, including the right to know the reason for their arrest, they would not be tortured and they would be produced before a court within 24 hours.

Mr Malik said pro forma had been prepared after two recent incidents. In one incident, a private torture cell was unearthed at Jarranwala where the policemen were keeping arrested suspects in illegal custody to extort bribe from them after torture while in another incident, the policemen tortured a suspect to death at the Thikriwala Police Station.

The CPO claimed that five police officials, including an SHO, had been sacked from the department for involvement in both incidents.

In another development, he added, for the first time, the police officers had been allowed to make a request for appointment as SHOs of the police stations of their choice and eight SHOs had been appointed on merit in the first phase out of 96 applicants after interviews and scrutiny. Among the eight appointees, Omer Saeed Malik said, a woman had also been posted in a male police station.

He added that a seven-member selection committee had been formed for the purpose and it consisted of two SSPs, four SPs and a DSP.

ARRESTED: Faisalabad’s Gulberg police arrested a youth who allegedly ran over a security guard by his car in revenge at Jinnah Colony.

Complainant Imran of Afghanabad locality claimed in his first information report (FIR) that his uncle, Muhammad Aslam, was performing duty as a guard outside a snooker club when he confronted a young man, identified as Sumair Shahzad, for wrong driving the other day.

On Sunday, Sumair crushed Aslam under his car. As a result, Aslam was injured seriously and he succumbed to his injuries at the Allied Hospital.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2022