PESHAWAR, Feb 19: Scores of young people arrested in connection with last week’s riots have complained of severe torture and rough treatment in custody.

Most of the arrested teenagers were either students belonging to various schools and colleges or were playing cricket in their localities when they were arrested. The counsel for several juveniles, Advocate Kabirullah Khattak, told Dawn that the police had blatantly violated the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000, after last week’s violent demonstrations. “The police had not separated children from adult suspects and had produced these children in handcuffs along with adult accused persons.”

He said that under the law the police had to inform the parents of the arrested children and also the probation officer concerned.

Advocate Arshad Khan, appearing for another juvenile suspect, said that however none of these provisions had been followed by the police.

One of the boys, Farhan Ahmad, 12, told Dawn: “I was returning from school when some policemen picked me along with some other students. They first beat us severely in the police station and asked us to kneel down. We were kept in that position for two hours and were not allowed to sleep during the night.”

Another boy, Mohammad Aziz, who was declared a juvenile by the ATC when he was produced before the court on Feb 16, claimed that he was arrested while playing cricket in Hayatabad. He said: “The police hit us on our toes with a stick throughout the night and constantly abused us.”

According to the record in local courts, including the anti-terrorism court, more than 50 out of the 400 arrested have officially been declared juveniles. Most of these people were arrested after the Feb 15 riots.

A day ahead of the riots the military police had held some students in connection with a protest held on Feb 14 in the Peshawar Cantonment. Students of educational institutions had smashed traffic signals and damaged properties of the Edward’s College, Peshawar Press Club, etc.

Parents of several students complained to Dawn that in most of the cases the students were arrested only because they were wearing the uniform of Edward’s College as some of its students had taken part in the protest.