GUJRAT: District Police Officer (DPO) Syed Tauseef Haider has suspended the station house officer (SHO) of Civil Lines police station after a group of people belonging to Swat protested against the alleged murder of a fellow here on Aug 15.

Scores of protesters, including activists from the local chapter of the Jamaat-i-Islami, gathered at Kutchery Chowk near the district courts and staged a sit-in against, what they alleged was, the negligence and high-handedness of police in dealing with the murder of the youth, identified as Miskeen Khan, who was allegedly tortured by some residents of Mughal Colony who claimed to have caught him red-handed during a robbery.

The protesters demanded justice for the youth, as they claimed that after arresting the critically injured Khan, police shifted him to hospital for first aid after which they shifted him to a lock-up where he succumbed to his injuries.

One of the leaders of the protesters said that in fact the deceased’s mobile phone had been stolen by a man from the Mughal Colony, and Khan had spotted him using it. When he asked the ‘thief’ to return his phone the man along with his accomplices kidnapped Khan, tortured him and also recorded a video of it, which later went viral on social media.

Khan was later handed over to the Civil Lines police that registered a case of theft against him and when the youth died and his heirs lodged a protest, police registered a murder case against the complainants of the theft case and detained four suspects in it.

Asad Gujjar, a spokesman for the Gujrat police, said that the police had been investigating both the cases whereas Superintendent of Police (Investigation) Ghulam Mustafa Gillani had been conducting an inquiry into the alleged negligence of the police officials concerned in dealing with the matter. Subsequently, the DPO suspended Civil Lines SHO Farasat Chattha with immediate effect.

Inspector Obaidullah replaced Chattha as the SHO.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2019