FAISALABAD, July 16: Postmortem report of a man killed in an ‘encounter’ proved that the victim had earlier been subjected to severe torture by the Jhang Bazaar police some three months ago, Dawn learnt on Saturday.

Rana Nasir, a resident of Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah’s constituency, was gunned down in, what the police said, an encounter on April 24 on Risalewala Road. However, the recently completed autopsy report says otherwise.

Earlier, a brother of Nasir namely Rana Rashid was also killed in a shootout by the Sargodha Road police on Nov 8 last.

Narrating a ‘concocted’ story in the FIR, the police said two motorcyclists snatched cash and cell phones from two people in Rail Bazaar and Gulberg and escaped. Jhang Bazaar SHO Sub-Inspector Farrukh Waheed (now serving at Factory Area police station) who was stationed at a picket on Risalewala Road, tried to stop them but they opened fire. In a shootout, one of the motorcyclists identified as Rana Nasir was killed while his accomplice managed his escape.

Hospital sources said they could not make the report public because of the immense police pressure as two judicial inquiries had proved that six people were killed in two staged encounters.

However, they said Nasir had left elbow joint fractured and torture signs on the left side of the chest, front of left forearm below elbow joint, left hand beside the base of index, middle and ring fingers and two small bluish abrasions on the back left forearm above the wrist joint were visible.

They said the victim had been tortured for about 12 hours before the encounter. Police pumped six bullets--five on right side on the chest and one on left side below the heart-- into Nasir, 33.

The report was prepared by a four-member team comprising Dr Arif Ali, (chairman) and medical superintendent of DHQ Hospital, Dr Khurram Sohail Raja, Dr Shafique Ahmad and Dr Shaukat Iqbal Rana, the sources said.

The victim had been arrested at Karachi and police interrogated him thoroughly before killing him in the encounter. The mother of Nasir had been running from pillar to post for her second son, but all in vain. She had visited media offices as well and news of Nasir’s arrest had also been aired by different channels.

Nasir was the second man in the case registered with the Factory Area police on Oct 21 last who had been killed after severe torture. Earlier, Zikariya of Nawabanwala, accused in the same case, had also been killed in a `staged encounter’ and he was also severely tortured with skull fracture on three different points. Before the encounter his head injury had been got stitched.

Autopsy report of Zikaria had also confirmed that he was tortured before the encounter.

Four accused -- Rana Nasir, Rana Rashid, Zikariya and Imran alias Boota -- in the triple murder case, registered by Factory Area police on Oct 21, had been gunned down in police encounters.

The bereaved families alleged that they were killed at the behest of law minister Rana Sanaullah, however, the minister had refuted the allegations.