PESHAWAR: A judicial commission tasked with probing the incident of stripping and torturing of a person in custody by the local police on Wednesday recorded statements of three police officials.

The provincial government had constituted the single-member commission comprising Justice Lal Jan Khattak of the Peshawar High Court after consultation with the court’s chief justice on Jun 29.

According to Syed Hassan Raza Shah, spokesperson of the commission, those who recorded their statements on Wednesday included Inspector Circle Officer University Town, Sajjad Hussain, who is the investigation officer in the case, SHO Tehkal police station, Sub-Inspector Syed Sardar Ali Shah, and SHO Yakatoot police station, Ali Said.

A day earlier the commission had recorded statements of five persons, including the victim, Radiullah alias Amirey.

The commission will resume proceedings on Thursday (today).

The FIR of the occurrence was registered at Tehkal police station on June 24 after two video clips of police torture and stripping of Radiullah, an Afghan national, surfaced on social media which triggered a public outcry.

Initially, three constables were arrested in the occurrence namely Zairullah, Naeem and Tauseef.

Later, two SHOs Imran and Sheharyar were also suspended and arrested.

The victim was picked up allegedly by a police party after a video showing him using abusive language against police surfaced. He was taken into custody, severely tortured and also stripped in revenge.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2020