HYDERABAD, Dec 19: Six people were found in illegal detention in two separate raids by officials of the Sindh High Court and sessions court in Dadu and Hyderabad. The raids were conducted on Wednesday.
A division bench of the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit bench, comprising Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice Mohammad Moosa K. Leghari had appointed Syed Ghulam Murtaza Shah to carry out a raid at the Rajo Dero police station, Dadu, and find out facts regarding the detention of six people.
Following the recovery of four out of the six detained people, the court directed the DPO, Dadu, to hold an inquiry into the matter and submit a report before the court within a month.
The court said that the detained people would have the right to challenge their unlawful detention by the police at the proper forum.
Advocate Ayaz Latif Palijo had filed a constitutional petition on behalf of Ghulam Rasool Bhurt, a resident of Bhorti Deh No-2, Dadu, against the SHO of Rajo Dero police station.
He claimed that on Dec 16, SHO Mazhar Butt along with ASI Nawab Machi, SHO (Thariri Mohabbat) Abu Bakar Chandio, and policemen Akbar Machi, Nimano Solangi, Hashim Solangi, and Muneer trespassed into the houses of the petitioner and his relatives in their village.
He claimed police maltreated them, took away Rs44,000, gold jewellry, and put six relatives of the petitioner — Omar, Rano, Ghulam Nabi, Ghulam Mohammad, Gul Hassan, and Hakeem (all Bhurt by caste) — in police mobile vans.
He said police told them to bring Rs50,000 and compromise with the Jatois otherwise they would be tortured and booked in false cases. They then took all of them to the police station without any warrant or legal justification.
He said when he approached the police with Hakim and Jurial the next day and asked the police to release them or show FIR/arrest warrants, the SHO demanded Rs50,000 for their release and threatened to kill them in an encounter.
The counsel argued that the life and honour of the detained people’s entire families were in great danger.
He prayed the court to issue a rule nisi and appoint a responsible officer of this court or civil judge to conduct a raid at the Rajo Dero police station for recovery and production of the detained people before the court.
He sought legal action against the SHO.
Syed Ghulam Murtaza Shah, the reader of the court, visited the police station and found four of the six detained men — Rano, Umer, Nooral, and Hakim — at the police station without any record or entry.
In the second raid, conducted by Ghulam Qadir Panwhar, the head clerk of the district and sessions judge, Hyderabad, on Wednesday at the Sakhi Pir police station and at a bungalow in Latifabad, two people were found in illegal detention.
A man, Khazanat Khan, had submitted an application before the district judge, who is also the director, Human Rights Board, that his nephew, Rehmatullah, and stepfather, Noor Bajan, were being kept in illegal detention by the police on the insistence of the owner of Rubi Gutka, Mohammad Naseer.
He said that Noor Bajan was being kept at the bungalow of Naseer while Rehmatullah was being kept in the lock up of the Sakhi Pir police station.
He claimed that police had demanded Rs400,000 for releasing them.
The head clerk visited the police station and found Rehmatullah locked in a room.
During his visit to Naseer’s bungalow in Unit No2, Latifabad, he found Noor Bajan.
Panwhar claimed that both of them were in illegal detention as there was no official record regarding it.