LAHORE, Nov 25: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan condemned on Tuesday police torture of three Faisalabad journalists and a shopkeeper.

In a statement issued on behalf of its president Tahir Muhammad Khan and secretary-general Hina Jilani, the HRCP maintained that the findings of the medical board, set up on the orders of a civil judge to look into a complaint by three newsmen and a shopkeeper of torture by police, provided a truly alarming indication of the expanded use of such means by authorities against citizens.

It said the newsmen and the shopkeeper, who happened to be in the office of a weekly, were picked up from the publication’s office by the Sargodha Road police last week.

The action came after the weekly had published an account of extortion by police from students. During the raid police also damaged furniture and removed items from the office.

The HRCP said multiple accounts of torture by police, jail authorities and other state agencies had come in during the year. In some cases, the victims had died.

So far, no policeman or other official had, to the knowledge of the HRCP, been penalized under the relevant laws for beating citizens. It was as such hardly surprising that the use of torture had been on the increase over the last few years.

It said given the situation, there was an urgent need for Pakistan to ratify international conventions against the use of torture, which it had not yet signed.

Still more important was the need to ensure those responsible for torturing citizens were punished for their crimes. Action to save still more citizens from police excesses should start now.

The HRCP said the policemen responsible for the torture of the Faisalabad newsmen must be identified and proceeded against. Unless this happened, common people would continue to fall victim to similar crimes, and police would remain at liberty to use torture as a routine means of intimidation and coercion against citizens.