UPPER DIR, Nov 29: Volunteers manning a check post established in Kohistan to curb timber smuggling have alleged that an SHO and his uniformed staff took them to police station and beat them up after they foiled their attempt to smuggle timber.

The check post has been set up with the approval of the forest department and manned by volunteers of local community to check smuggling of timber from the forest-rich Kohistan region of Upper Dir.

Syed Mohammad, a volunteer, said that they were on routine duty at the Bada Khwar checkpoint when a police van arrived. He said that when they searched the vehicle they found six timber logs and confiscated them.

He alleged that it enraged Kalkot police station SHO Mohammad Shafi who was accompanying the van, and bundled four of the volunteers into the van and took them to the police station.

Syed Mohammad, who showed his badly bruised back, claimed that police officials lashed them for the whole day on Tuesday. He alleged that the officials who numbered around 15 first punched and kicked them and then took them to a narrow room.

“SHO Shafi flogged us for around 30 minutes,” he alleged, adding that then another senior official, commonly referred to as Mirza, started beating us for some time.

He said that other volunteers, including Akbar Khan, Imranullah and Arifullah, had also sustained injuries as a result of police torture.

When contacted, SHO Shafi denied that he or any other police official had tortured the volunteers.

Shamsur Rahman, father of Syed Mohammad, said that the committee of volunteers consisted of 125 people who had been authorised by local tribes and forest department to check vehicles for timber smuggling. The checkpoint has been operational for last many years.

He alleged that the SHO had been involved in timber smuggling and caught red-handed before.