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Published 18 Jun, 2008 12:00am

Prisoners allege torture by jail authorities

ISLAMABAD, June 17: Two under-trial prisoners (UTPs) who were brought to the District and Session Court for hearing of cases on Tuesday alleged that they were subjected to torture and that their lips were sewn by the Adiala jail officials, senior officials of district administration and police told Dawn.

According to the officials, over a hundred UTPs were brought from the jail to the city lower courts to produce them in the concerned courts for hearing of separate cases and detained in Bukshi Khana. Here, they started shouting and chanting slogans against the jail authorities.

The area magistrate along with superintendents of police of the West and Headquarters rushed to the spot and found the lips of two UTPs sewed with metal wire. The mater was brought to the notice of the district and session judge, who sent the UTPs escorted by the Margalla and elite personnel to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences for medical assistance and medico- legal.

Besides, the judge also ordered an inquiry and asked the deputy commissioner Islamabad to appoint an officer in this regard. Assistant Commissioner Sadar Circle Malik Afsar has been appointed as the inquiry officer with the direction to submit the report within three days.

Senior officers of the district administration and police said the two UTPs were arrested by the Shalimar and Tarnol police some two years ago for their alleged involvement in more than 35 cases of “murder, robberies and rape”.

According to the officials, the UTPs claimed that they were tortured by the jail officials, particularly deputy superintendent for the last six months, and that heir rivals paid handsome money to the official for torturing them.

They were not able to take food for the last three days as their lips were sewed, the officers said quoting the UTPs.

Other UTPs detained in the Bukshi Khana also alleged that the senior officers of the jail tortured them regularly.

Sources in the Pims said the UTPs were brought to the hospital amid tight security, where their lips were unstitched.

Some marks of bruises were also found on the back of the UTPs, which were not self-inflicted, they said, adding that they were not kept in the hospital as their condition was stable.

Later, they were shifted to the Adiala jail by the personnel of elite and Margalla police. The UTPs started shouting when the personnel took them into vehicle and feared that they would be again “tortured by the jail officials”.

Sources in the jail said the officials, including newly appointed officer, who have a support of an MPA of the Punjab assembly used to torture them with different things, including shoes, baton, leather belt and metal.

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