GUJRAT: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Gujrat, has booked at least 36 police officials of Mandi Bahauddin district, including five station house officers (SHOs), on the charges of kidnapping, torturing and hurling life threats at a senior lawyer.

The case has been lodged around two months after the directions issued by Mandi Bahauddin additional district and session judge (AD&SJ) on a petition filed in his court by Advocate Afzal Ahmed Bhatti, seeking registration of a criminal case against the police officials.

In the FIR, the complainant lawyer alleged that a team comprising 30 unidentified policemen, led by Civil Lines police station SHO Hamid Nasir, Phalia SHO Khurram Shahzad Bosal, Qadirabad SHO Naeem Mushtaq, Miana Gondal SHO Arslan Gondal and SHO Muhammad Saleem, also posted in Phalia, arrived at his house on June 14 the last.

The accused policemen, he said, breached the sanctity of his house by forcibly entering there and hurling threats at him for being counsel for at least three suspects wanted by the district police.

The lawyer said that the policemen allegedly bundled him into a vehicle and later subjected to severe physical torture to distract him from performing his professional obligations.

The petitioner had earlier lodged a case under sections 22A and 22B of the PPC upon which AD&SJ Asim Shahzad Bhatti on June 21, 2025, ordered FIA to register a case against the suspects as per the complaint.

After conducting initial inquiry, the FIA finally lodged the case on August 18, 2025.

However, no arrest has so far been made.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2025