BAHAWALNAGAR: A resident of Bonga Balochan on Thursday accused the Minchinabad police officials of raiding his house without a search warrant and torturing women and children.

They alleged that the police tortured an elderly woman, took into custody a family member and later released him after taking bribe.

Taj Muhammad Baloch told Dawn seven police officials broke into his house on Nov 7 and took into custody his brother, Ijaz Baloch, besides beating the family members. They also took into custody eight-year-old daughter of Ijaz and shifted her to the police van.

Meanwhile, their brother Imtiaz arrived there and he asked the police officials about the raid. The police told him that Ijaz was wanted in a case.

On Imtiaz’s interference, the police released the child and took Ijaz to Minchinabad police station. He said the police took action on a complaint by Nadeem over a dispute of Rs35,000.

According to Taj, he had a dispute with Nadeem and not Ijaz. He alleged the Minchinabad police tortured his brother and threatened to implicate him in serious cases. Later, the matter was resolved at the outhouse of a local landlord and Ijaz was released after taking bribe.

Taj said he had given a written application for a probe into the matter.

According to an official of the Minchinabad police station, Ijaz was arrested by mistake.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2019