BAHAWALPUR: The Baghdad-ul-Jadid police claimed to have arrested on Saturday three police officials out of the seven wanted in a case of custodial torture and death at Civil Lines police station, Bahawalpur.

Station House Officer (SHO) Abid Hameed said three of the suspects -- Sub-Inspector (SI) Ahmed Cheema, ASI Zulfiqar and ASI Shehzad -- have been arrested, while four others, including Civil Lines SHO, were still at large.

SHO Hameed, who is complaint of a fresh FIR (No 22/23) earlier registered under sections 342 and 155 C against the seven police officials, told Dawn that a new case was filed on the orders of Bahawalpur District Police Officer (DPO) Aibadat Nisar for alleged torture and illegal confinement of the deceased, Sagheer.

He added that Sagheer, who was seriously injured because of torture in custody, allegedly
died on January 1 because of the police officials’ negligence in shifting him to hospital for treatment.

The new FIR filed with Baghdad police station is in addition to the earlier FIR (No.4/23) registered under section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on Jan 1 against the seven

police officials on the demand of the family members of the deceased.

After Sagheer’s death in custody on Jan 1, due to alleged police torture, his family members and a large number of locals had blocked all the city roads to and from Fowara Chowk for
traffic for over four hours, forcing the Civil Lines police to booked the police officials.

LAID TO REST: Javed Khan Daulatzai, the deputy mayor of Bahawalpur Metropolitan Corporation, and present in charge of CM’s district complaint cell, who had died of heart failure on Friday night, was laid to arrest in a local graveyard on Saturday.

His funeral was attended by a large number of people from different walks of life.

Published in Dawn, january 8th, 2023