Ammar Hussain Shah, aged 16, was kept in illegal confinement and tortured by four men, much older in age, for the whole day on the alleged theft of a mobile phone.

The poor boy, who was working as a labourer at a poultry farm near Tret Syedan along old Murree Highway, was confined in one of the sheds of the poultry farm, located in isolation away from the main road, and was brutally thrashed with batons and steel rods.

The boy continued to plead not guilty and took all sorts of oaths and swore upon what could be the dearest to him to prove his innocence, but the perpetrators of the violence were ruthless. The young boy was beaten up by three men, much older in age to him, including Jani Pathan, a resident of Peshawar, Waheed Khan, also belonging to Peshawar and Zawar Pathan, belonging to Bannu along with Safeer Hussain Shah, a local resident of Tret Syedan, over the alleged theft of a mobile phone.

They beat him up with batons and iron roads, mainly targeting his back, lower back and legs, tied his ankles with iron mesh wire and even tried to pull his fingernails by using a pair of pliers.

Eventually, when the worst physical violence could not budge Ammar Hussain Shah to accept that he had stolen the mobile phone, Waheed Khan pulled out his pistol and aimed at his temple, threatening to blow his brain or he should accept the theft.

However, by the time the young boy had become numb to pain and was almost on the verge of collapsing and never bothered if the gun was pointed at his head or what. At this stage, the four men finally decided to let Ammar Hussain Shah to go but not before Waheed Khan and Jani Pathan waved their pistols in front of his face, ordering him not to utter a word about the whole episode to anybody in the village.

Ammar was too terrified to utter a word. He came home and avoided everybody around him as he tried to remain confined to a dark room in his house. He did not talk to anybody. He refused to answer any questions from his family and friends as to why he was not going to his job and as to why he was not socialising as he had been in the past.

The emotional and psychological trauma finally took its toll when he caught high fever and was taken to the doctor almost after 10 days of the incident. It was only on that day that he confided to one of his close friends about the incident.

But the worst was yet to be confronted by the poor boy and his family. When they approached the Police Chowki in Tret Syedan for filing the report about the whole incident, its in-charge sub-inspector refused to take any action against the perpetrators of violence.

However, when the director of an NGO Kinara, Qamar Kiani, and the media director, Laila Syed, approached the Police Chowki with a written application, its ‘moharrir’ received the application but still refused to file an FIR in the incident.

When the in-charge sub-inspector of the Tret Chowki was approached for his comments by ‘The News’, he was not only rude but even furious. He flatly said that his brother is the protocol officer of the Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and he gives a damn to what people tell him to do.

“Even the IG (Inspector General) and the DIG (Deputy Inspector General of Police) cannot dare pass any orders against me because they know “who I am and I take my own decisions,” the sub-inspector said.

Ultimately it was upon the intervention of a number of senior media persons as well as the influential local politicians that the sub-inspector showed some signs of flexibility and promised to ‘look into the matter’.

According to local sources, it was learnt that the sub-inspector did call one of the perpetrators of violence, Jani Pathan of Peshawar, but he was allowed to leave after a brief meeting.

Meanwhile, the owner of the poultry farm, whose alleged loss of a mobile phone, instigated the ugly episode, has already denied that any of his cell phones was lost and clearly said that his employees have taken out some other vengeance upon the young boy.

Unfortunately, the Police Chowki in-charge has not taken any action on the application filed on behalf of Ammar Hussain Shah and no first information report (FIR) against the perpetrators of unprovoked violence against the young boy has not been registered so far.

This correspondent contacted the concerned officer of the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) to confirm the Police Chowki in-charge claim that he was the brother of the protocol officer of Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and even the Punjab IGP or the DIG Range could not dare issue any directives or orders to him. The ISPR officer said that if there were any such thing that his brother was actually the protocol officer of the army chief and he really backed him to use his official position for his personal or official gains in Punjab Police, then he would be pulled for using his brother’s name to show his illegal power.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (Murree) Abbas Marvet, when contacted for his comments, said that initially he was unaware about the incident but he took up the case as he got information about the episode. The ASP said that he has summoned both parties to proceed the case according to law. Marvet said that action against the people embroiled in the torture case would be taken accordingly.