Mother of tortured student not satisfied with investigations

The mother of a teenager student who was tortured in Defence Housing Authority by guards of an influential person has expressed reservations about the police investigations in the case so far.

In a video statement released on Thursday, 18-year-old Najam's mother said she was not satisfied over the fact that only three arrested suspects were behind the bars because a total of 20 people were involved in the thrashing of her son.

"We remained at the crime scene for more than two hours, asking the police to obtain CCTV footage as we feared that the influential people will have it disappeared," the mother said, alleging that the police had still not obtained the footage and if they did, they failed to share it with the family.

She denied the allegation that her son possessed some weapon at the time of the incident but admitted that he fought back in his defence as the suspects were in plainclothes. "If my son had a weapon, why the police and Rangers did not find it."

The mother lamented that such incidents indicated that the people of Karachi were not free citizens and they were subjects of feudal families. "The influential people are levelling allegations to pressurise us."

Najam, an A level student, was tortured over a parking issue on Sunday night. His mother claimed that the incident took place when he had gone to Saba Commercial to have dinner with friends.

“My son returned home with several torture marks on his body,” she said and accused some armed security guards of former MNA Shahzain Bugti of beating her son over a parking dispute.

The mother also claimed that the police were also present at the scene when the incident occurred and they did not take any action against the guards, and instead acted like silent spectators.

Narrating the story, Najam said the security guards beat him up after he declined to move his parked vehicle outside an eatery. “The armed men [Bugti’s guards] also fired aerial shots to threaten me,” he said. “A crowd was there and saw the entire scene but no one had the courage to come for my help.”

Reacting to the information, a heavy contingent of law enforcers, including Clifton Division SP Suhai Aziz, reached the scene to inquire into the thrashing. She assured the victim’s mother of taking strict action against the police present at the site for showing negligence.

Najam was later shifted to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre. A medical report confirmed that one of his limbs had been fractured due to the thrashing. The police registered an FIR on the complaint of the victim against the security guards at the Darakshan police station. Following the registration of the FIR, the police arrested a driver and two security guards of Bugti and initiated investigations.