TOBA TEK SINGH: Additional District and Sessions Judge Nasir Sial on Wednesday handed down eight-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs80,000 to each of six policemen in a torture case.

Advocate Tajammal Nafees, representing the deceased petitioner Muhammad Akbar of Chak 393 JB Khanpur told the media outside the court that the incident took place in 2020.

According to him, the six convicts had raided Akbar’s home, vandalised his property and tortured his family after he refused to pay them a ‘monthly’ extortion from his gas cylinder dealership.

Nafees said local police initially refused to register a case against the suspects. He alleged that under police pressure, the local Rural Health Centre (RHC) also declined to issue a medico-legal certificate.

Akbar succumbed to his injuries after several months. His family reportedly struggled to obtain official documentation of his death from Allied Hospital, Faisalabad.

A direct petition supported by evidence was eventually filed by Akbar before his death, which formed the basis of the case. On the day of the verdict, all six convicts fled the court before the judgment was announced. Judge Nasir Sial ordered the City police station house officer to arrest and send the convicts to jail.

The convicts include former Toba Saddar SHO Mumtaz Hussain, Sub-Inspector Muhammad Shafiq and constables Saqib, Iqbal, Abdul Ghani and Afzal.It is said to be a unique case in the judicial history of Toba.

FIA: A composite team of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Faisalabad on Wednesday arrested a proclaimed offender linked to an international human smuggling ring.

The suspect, Zahoor Ahmad, was taken into custody upon his return from Saudi Arabia at Sialkot Airport. According to FIA officials, Ahmad was involved in trafficking Pakistanis abroad under the false promise of employment, only to forcibly use them as beggars.

An FIA spokesperson said Ahmad, along with his accomplices Abdul Ghafoor and Muhammad Sharif, recently sent five women to Saudi Arabia on Umrah visas and coerced them into begging.

The FIA had placed Ahmad’s name on the Provisional National Identification List (PNIL) at the request of its Faisalabad office. Raids are underway to arrest his two accomplices.

In a separate operation on Wednesday, FIA also arrested three passengers Umar Farooq, Naila Rani and Ashraf Mahmood at Faisalabad Airport who had returned from the Maldives on flight FZ355 using fake documents.

Their fake passports of Portugal were recovered from them which they had got from local agent Muhammad Umair by paying Rs600,000 to him and FIA would also arrest him.

NEW FEEDERS: The Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (Fesco) construction wing has established 45 new feeders in Faisalabad, Sargodha, Mianwali and Jhang districts at a cost of Rs1,208.303 million. The completion of these feeders will help save Fesco Rs47.698m kilowatt hours.

Project Director Ahmed Ali Shah told the media on Wednesday that the completion of these new feeders will reduce losses for Fesco and provide quality service to consumers. In addition, the completion of these feeders will make it possible to permanently eliminate complaints such as power tripping and fluctuation of voltage during the summer.

VISIT: An 18-member group of officers participating in the 37th Senior Management Course at the National Institute of Public Administration (Nipa) Peshawar visited the FDA Complex on a study tour.

FDA Director General Muhammad Asif Chaudhry and Additional Director General Kaiser Abbas Rind and other officers welcomed the guests, who were led by Chief Instructor Tariq Bakhtiar.

The director general briefed them about the organisational structure, jurisdiction, legal framework, performance, development activities and other matters of urban development of the FDA.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2025