LAHORE: The Punjab inspector general of police on Friday, in a surprise move, changed the head of the departmental inquiry committee probing the Model Town incident.

According to Punjab Police spokeswoman Nabeela Ghazanfar, Additional IG Punjab Sarmad Saeed Khan has been relieved of the assignment because of his official engagements and Additional IG Welfare & Finance Dr Arif Mushtaq has been appointed head of the committee which includes DIG Ali Aamir Malik and SSP Hussain Habib Imtiaz Gill.

Sources privy to the inquiry told Dawn that Mr Mushtaq was a relative of a federal minister.

They said the committee formed on Thursday was yet to initiate regular inquiry as police hierarchy was apparently in a quagmire because of tense situation following the Model Town incident, police officers’ refusal to take up the inquiry and ever-increasing pressure from power corridors.

They claimed the additional IG Punjab, who is going to retire next month, avoided taking responsibility keeping in view its sensitivity and to avoid government pressure.

Meanwhile, two SSPs of Punjab police also showed their reluctance to be posted the Lahore SSP (Operations). A source in the Central Police Office told this reporter that one of the SSPs who refused posting at this point of time, was the Gujrat DPO.

medical examination: Faisal Town police on Friday took 21 arrested workers of Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) to Mian Munshi Hospital for medical examination following a court order.

An anti-terrorism court while sending the arrested suspects on judicial remand had directed police to get them medically examined.

Initially they were taken to Jinnah Hospital but the authorities there refused to examine them. Police later took them to Mian Munshi Hospital where doctors conducted their medical examination and confirmed they had been “brutally tortured”.

Talking to the media at the hospital, the injured PAT workers accused policemen of subjecting them to severe torture in custody. They were tortured irrespective of their age, they claimed.

PAT spokesman Qazi Faiz told Dawn over 200 activists were had been missing since police’s operation outside the Minhajul Quran Secretariat. He claimed 14 workers had been killed during the operation.

He identified nine of the missing people as Arshad, Abdul Qayyum, Ghazanfar, Muhammad Waqas Alvi, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Syed Mansoor Shah, Waqas Ayub, Ayub Khalid and Muhammad Shahbaz.

However, police and morgue officials confirmed 10 people had died in the incident.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2014