SWAT: A large number of protesters surrounded the Matta police station on Wednesday after a young man died in a local hospital allegedly due to police torture.

According to the relatives of the deceased, Sanaullah, a resident of Tootkey area in Matta tehsil, was arrested by Matta police a couple of days ago.

“The police tortured him during investigation and when his condition worsened, he was sent to jail instead of hospital,” they said, adding that owing to his critical situation the jail sent him to the hospital where he breathed his last.

The family members who were demonstrating claimed that the young man’s body bore clear signs of brutal violence. They placed the youth’s body in front of the Matta police station, barricading the road and launched a forceful protest.

Additionally, they urged the authorities concerned to initiate legal proceedings against the police officers allegedly involved in the violent incident.

In another incident, an unidentified group abducted a child who was en route to a madrassa in the Shalpin area of Khawazakhela. Sham Khan, the uncle of the abducted child, explained that his son and nephew were on their way to the madrassa when some individuals in a car abducted Abbas.

Fortunately, Sham Khan’d son was able to escape from the scene. However, he expressed displeasure over the Khawazakhela police, asserting that they didn’t register a first information report but instead recorded the incident on a plain paper.

Meanwhile in a separate occurrence, armed individuals abducted a 24-year-old man on Tuesday from Odigram area falling under the jurisdiction of Rahimabad police station.

A CCTV footage, which was circulated on the social media, clearly showed Asad Khan, the young individual, walking along the roadside in Odigram Bazaar. In the video, a group of armed men in three double-cabin vehicles can be seen blocking the main road and subsequently abducting him.

Asad Khan later claimed that after the CCTV footage depicting the incident went viral on the social media, he was released on Wednesday from the custody of the Counter-Terrorism Department centre at the police lines in Kabal.

The youth said that the armed men covered his face and took him to an unidentified location where they tortured him throughout the night. However, he was released in the morning.

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2023