ISLAMABAD: A suspect detained in the police lock-up in connection with a murder case died after allegedly being subjected to severe torture on Friday.

According to the First Information Report (FIR), Noman Khan was picked up by officials of the Tarnol police station from Mianwali on Thursday (July 10) and brought to Islamabad and detained in the lock-up. However, the police neither formally showed him as arrested nor recorded his detention in the official register.

At around 9:50pm on July 10, three persons, including an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) and a constable, shifted the suspect to the interrogation room from the lock-ups and subjected him to severe torture. Later, the officials took him back to the lock-up and detained him there without making his formal arrest.

The other suspects kept in the lock-up started shouting for help after Khan’s condition started deteriorating. As a result, the station clerk (Moharrar) along with the constable rushed to the lock-up and found severe marks of torture on the suspect’s body.

The station clerk brought the matter in the notice of his senior officer and later the suspect was taken to hospital after 2am (July 11). On his way to hospital, the suspect told the officials that the ASI, the constable and another person had tortured him severely.

The suspect then fell unconscious and doctors pronounced him dead upon arrival in the hospital.

A senior police officer confirmed to Dawn that a case had been registered under section 302 (murder), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of Pakistan Penal Code along with section 155-C (penalty for certain types of misconduct by police officers is guilty of any willful breach or neglect of any provision of law or of any rule or regulation or any order which he is bound to observe or obey).

A constable stationed at the police station witnessed the three officials moving the suspect from the lock-up to the interrogation room and later back again, the officer said.

He also confirmed that the two police officials had illegally detained the suspect, subjecting him to severe torture. The third individual involved has been identified by name, but it remains unclear whether or not he was also a police official.

The officer said Khan was a proclaimed offender in connection with a murder committed during a robbery in August 2021.

Another police officer said the suspect had allegedly murdered 31-year-old woman, Saba Ilyas, during a robbery in G-15/2.

The incident occurred when she left her house for a walk at 10pm. Her husband later called her, but her mobile phone was switched off. Concerned, he left the house and came across a crowd gathered on the road. Upon investigation, he discovered his wife lying in a pool of blood.

She had sustained multiple gunshot wounds to her chest and ribs and died on the spot. Her mobile phone was missing. A murder case was subsequently registered with Tarnol police based on a complaint lodged by the victim’s husband.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2025