LAHORE, Oct 7: Policemen at no stage of training are taught about scientific methods of investigating cases and reaching right conclusions.

The pressure by seniors for ‘miraculous’ results in cases forces subordinates to use every methodology including torture to extract confessions or required information.

As torture for which there is no provision in the law forces an accused to confess to a crime he has never committed. It also leads to deaths in custody. Sensitive people who are subjected to torture or humiliation develop severe psychological problems even after they are released.

Official record shows that at least 12 people had died in the custody of different law enforcing agencies in Lahore from January to September this year. Families in all these cases alleged that the victims were tortured to death. Officials concerned said that the accused either died of cardiac arrests or other reasons. Of the 12 casualties, eight people died in the police custody.

Lower rank policemen, CIA investigators and some SHOs who were interviewed by this reporter admitted on condition of anonymity that: “Torture is a routine method.” They pleaded that they had to resort to torture an accused because their senior officers demanded miracles from them. While explaining, they said that the high officers always demanded results from them in a short period of time. If a robbery was committed, SHO concerned was directed to arrest accused and make recovery at the earliest, they said, adding that the SHO received another such instruction at a time when he made no progress in the case.

They said that they usually used five methods of torture; ‘physical, hygienic, deprivation, psychological and humiliation’.

Explaining the methods, they said that they carried out torture with a roller or a ‘rula’ (a wooden stick or bamboo) in most of the cases. The roller was used on thighs and calves to damage veins, arteries and nerves.

Beating with belts, bamboos, rifle butts, wooden sticks, iron rods, electric wires, whips, roots of trees, wet towels and thorny branches were the other methods of torture, said a CIA investigator who also showed chains, bamboos and iron rods to this reporter at the CIA headquarters.

Kicking, hanging upside down, burning with live cigarettes, iron rods, chittar (rubber truncheons), needles’ insertion into nails, naked parade, confinement in dark room, exposure to extreme cold were the other ways to torture an accused in police custody.

Deaths in the custody of different agencies are frequently reported with almost no subsequent investigation or punitive action against those responsible. Keeping the accused at private places and subjecting them to severe torture is another common practice among Punjab police officials. Several complaints in this regard were reported to the human rights activists and the Lahore High Court and victims were recovered from the private torture cells on their intervention.

A case against three policemen of Naulakha was also registered in July this year for running a private torture cell after an elderly man died in custody.

Several senior officers at a conference on Human Rights and Policing organized by the Punjab police some months ago had admitted that there was no other way around except for the torture to get results. Lack of training, manpower, funds, time and proper equipment were produced by the officers as the main reason for the torture as the only way to extract confessions and making recoveries.

“How can I devote all of my time to investigate an accused when I am supposed to deal with dozens of cases daily”, a DSP posted in Lahore told the conference, admitting that he had always found torture the only way to show results to his senior hierarchy.

Following is the chronology of the eight incidents.

1) ASI Ashraf of Kot Lakhpat police allegedly hanged accused Amjad Husain upside down on June 5 which resulted in his death.

2) An ASI of Naulakha police along with half a dozen policemen visited Mohammad Rasheed outside Delhi Gate to force him to withdraw a kidnap case. When he refused, they allegedly tortured him to death.

3) ASI Lala Roshan of the CIA Gulberg killed Salahuddin allegedly in a fake police encounter when his father failed to arrange a money demanded by the officer.

4) Three policemen of Naulakha police kept an old man, Saddiq, in a private torture cell where he died.

5) Two police officials of Dharampura police allegedly trespassed on a house and opened fire when they met resistance. As a result of the firing, four people sustained injuries and one of them died in hospital.

6) A woman, Masooma Fatima, who was a theft accused, died in the custody of Liaquatabad police. Her father later alleged that she was subjected to physical and sexual assaults that resulted in her death. An inquiry conducted by the then Model Town division police SP found the policemen concerned guilty in the case.

7) A man charged with selling drugs died in the custody of Allama Iqbal Town police.

8) An alleged robber died in the custody of Shahdara police and a case in this regard was registered against four policemen. Rest of the four people died in the custody of other law enforcing agencies.

Following is the chronology of these deaths.

1) Mian Arshad, an aide of detained PPP secretary-general Jehangir Badar, died in the NAB custody. His family alleged that he was tortured to death while NAB officials claimed that he died of a cardiac arrest. However, a judicial inquiry had been ordered.

2) A prisoner, Arshad Iqbal, died in the Lahore District Jail two days after he was interrogated by Lohari police in a bomb blast case.

3) A car dealer, Zafar alias Lala, was picked up from his showroom close to the Lahore General Hospital by plainclothesmen. His body was handed over to the family by Jhelum police two days after he went missing. It was alleged that he died during interrogation by an intelligence agency.

4) A bomb blast accused, Aslam alias Ghora, was subjected to torture and was killed by the Lahore CIA in an “encounter.”

MEDICAL EXPERTS: Doctors say that the torture victims after being released from custody suffer from physical and functional effects. Slapping can cause blindness and hanging upside down can result in renal failure of torture victims. They continue to suffer pain in the tortured areas of the body for whole life, they say. Most of torture victims suffer from kidney problems due to blows in the lower abdomen or on buttocks and feet, they say.