BAHAWALNAGAR: A video clip is currently going viral on social media, showing a young man with signs of torture and burns on his genitals, alleging that the police kidnapped two young men, took them to a landlord’s outhouse in Chishtian B Division police limits, subjected them to severe torture, and then released them after taking bribe.
The video claims that the police in Chishtian use landlords’ outhouses as ‘private torture cells’ where people are tortured and humiliated, and then released on the condition that they will not lodge compliant against the police officials.
Police sources told Dawn that the two youth in the video belonged to Vilahrwala village and are cousins. They said the name of the injured youth in the video is ‘A’ who is the brother of a youth ‘H’.
They said a case has been registered against ‘H’ , his mother and father under sections 376 and 338C of the PPC with Police Station B Division on May 5.
Police belie custodial torture claim, term video rape suspect’s bid to secure release
The FIR stated that ‘H’ intimidated and raped his neighbour, 16-year-old ‘S’, for several months as a result she became pregnant.
On the night of May 2, ‘H’ took ‘S’ to his residence, where his mother, a midwife, and father were present, and got her aborted. It said the next day, she told her parents about the incident.
According to police sources, after registering an FIR, the police arrested parents of ‘H’ and sent them to judicial custody. However, ‘H’ went into hiding fearing arrest. To catch him, the police held his brother ‘Al’ , who is seen in the video, along with one of his cousins ‘An’ and kept in a private place.
It merits mentioning that Jawad Ajmal Qazi, the current station house of Chishtian B Division, was reinstated a few weeks ago after being dismissed from service along with six of his colleagues on charges of kidnapping a citizen from Arifwala, torturing him inside the police station and in a private cell, and demanding Rs2 million from him in exchange for his release, while posted in B Division Bahawalnagar in 2021.
After the dismissal appeals from various forums in this kidnapping-cum-ransom case were rejected, former DPO Bahawalnagar Muhammad Kamran reinstated Qazi and posted him as SHO, sources said.
However, police spokesperson Zahid Rasool claimed that the police neither tortured the teenagers not got bribes from them. He stated that the victim’s family was hesitant to file a police report owing to the stigma, but the police persuaded them and they consented to do so. He claimed that the alleged rapist’s brother and cousin orchestrated a phony social media campaign to put pressure on the police and secure favour in their case.
Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2026
