KARACHI, June 14: Following the suo moto notice taken by the apex court of Pakistan about the reported presence of torture cells in police stations, Sindh IGP Jahangir Mirza has issued directives to the high officials of police department to check and get rid of such cells throughout the province.

The written directives have been issued to the CCPO Karachi, AIG Investigation, AIG Special Branch, RPOs of Hyderabad and Sukkur, DIG CID, DIGs (Operations) of Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Sukkur and Larkana and all the DPOs and TPOs of the province.

The IGP has directed these officers to ensure that none of their subordinate officers, involved with investigation of cases, uses any place other than the official premises for interrogation of suspects remanded to their custody. Absence of lockup facility at any police station should not be an excuse for shifting suspects to any private quarters for the purpose of interrogation, he maintained.

He said that the RPOs and DIGs (Operations) must immediately revive special human rights cells in their offices preferably headed by a gazetted officer to monitor such gross human rights violations in their respective jurisdiction and after preliminary verification bring it in the notice of their senior officers for necessary disciplinary/legal action. Any report appearing in press should be accordingly checked and verified, he added.

At the same time, the CCPO and RPOs must prepare a comprehensive code of conduct as per Article 144 of Police Order 2002 and circulate it amongst all echelons/ police stations/ posts for awareness and compliance.

In order to restore the confidence of people and in their effort to eradicate abominable practices in police, the RPOs, DIG and DPOs must publicise a telephone number in every district where general public should be encouraged to lay such information voluntarily. This step would not only encourage public to report such matters but would also discourage such malpractices amongst police officials to a great extent. At the same time, RPOs, DIG Operations and DPOs must off and on raid/pay surprise visits to police stations and other such places to check in person such complaints.

The IGP directed further that in reported incidents, after having satisfactorily completing all legal formalities, a case against defaulter police officials should be registered under Article 156 of Police Order 2002.

Any officer/ official known to practice torture should not be posted in investigation branch.

In future, he said, any police official selected for posting in investigation branch must undergo a short course in human rights and should give in writing to desist from torturing the accused/ detained persons in any form during the investigation.—PPI