‘State responsible for medical treatment of suspects injured in police encounters’

Judicial inquiry commission recommends treatment should be
ensured at public or private hospitals

Karachi 

A judicial inquiry commission recommended on Saturday that the medical treatment of a person injured during or after arrest by police should be ensured at public or private hospitals.

The recommendation came in an inquiry report over an alleged police encounter in which Mohammad Yousuf was injured during a shootout with police in Sharafabad on February 25.

Yousuf’s father had filed an application before the Sindh High Court for a judicial inquiry submitting that his son was injured in alleged police encounter and because he was not provided with medical treatment in time, his leg was amputated by doctors.

He alleged that police had injured Yousuf and his friend and demanded money for their medical treatment at a private hospital while they were in custody.

Sindh High Court Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah had ordered the district and sessions judge (East) to conduct a judicial inquiry into the incident.

District and sessions judge (East) Faheem Ahmed Siddiqui submitted that no independent witness appeared before the court for recording a statement and no CCTV camera footage was available to examine the claim of the petitioner therefore the police encounter could not be termed as fake.

He also submitted that the police had taken the petitioner’s son to the Jinnah hospital where facility of the required medical treatment was unavailable and police had demanded money from Yousuf’s family for his treatment at a private hospital.

The petitioner’s son was shifted to a private hospital but doctors had to amputate his leg because there was too much delay.

The inquiry commission recommended that providing medical treatment to the suspects who were in police custody was the responsibility of the State and police had failed to perform their duty.

The judicial officer recommended that in future any person who was injured during police encounter or because of police torture in custody should be provided with medical treatment at the State’s expense.

He also recommended that the availability of a vascular surgeon should be ensured at all civil hospitals at the divisional level and the accused should be provided with artificial limbs in case their leg or arms were amputated.