MANSEHRA, Dec 28: A carpenter has complained that officials of the forest department kept him in illegal confinement for a day and tortured him.

The carpenter, Mistri Naheed, was beaten by the officials for allegedly stealing 28 logs worth more than Rs200,000, which could not be lifted even by a dozen men from the Mansehra central forest depot, which is surrounded by a boundary wall and barbed wires and where two watchmen remained on duty.

The officials handed him over to police who set him free two days later on the intervention of District Nazim Syed Ahmad Hussain Shah and Mansehra City No.1 Union Council Naib Nazim Syed Munir Shah.

Mistri Naheed told newsmen that he was working at a hotel on Dec 23 when the official in charge of the depot, Mian Tahir Shah, and other officials forcibly took him inside the depot, tied his hands and feet and locked him in a room, he said.