Cops accused of custodial torture, sexual assault

HARIPUR: A man here on Friday accused the City Police Station cops of subjecting his son to custodial abuse and sexual assault during his three-day unrecorded detention.

Pir Amanat Hussain Shah, a resident of Mirpur village, told media persons that Samiullah Khan, a head constable of City Police Station, arrested his son Shafqat Abbas Shah from their home at around 11.20am on February 17.

The policemen, according to Pir Amanat, subjected his son to sever physical torture using third degree methods of pumping red chilies mixed liquid into his body, removed his nails, hit his foot soles with sticks, after fastening his legs and hands, and administered him sedative injections and allegedly assaulted him sexually.

The policemen, who were questioning the complainant’s son, forced him to confess that he was one of the four accused who looted cash and mobile phones from two persons in his native village during December last year.

However, the policemen handed over the custody of the accused to the City Police Station at around 4.30pm the same day where he was kept unlawfully without registration of FIR for another 72 hours.

The city police later handed him over to the Kotnajibullah police, who had registered an FIR the same day (February 19, 2023) against unknown robbers for snatching cash and mobile phones from a shopkeeper and his friend on the evening of December 8, 2022.

When contacted, Siddque Shah, the SHO of Kotnajibullah Police Station, denied the contents of the complaint and said that the complaint of robbery at the shop of Inam Ali, a resident of Mir Pur, was under inquiry since December and the accused Shafqat Shah was picked up on suspicion and during preliminary interrogation, he confessed that he was one of the four accused who robbed the shopkeeper.