Protest staged over KP police ‘excesses’ against citizen

Members of the National Youth Organisation’s Sindh chapter organised a protest on Friday against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police for torturing a man whose videos went viral on social media two days ago.

The video showed law enforcement personnel torturing and forcibly stripping a man, Aamir Tehkali, naked, allegedly after he abused the police department in an intoxicated state.

National Youth Organisation leaders Ijaz Aslam, Imtiaz Khan and Pashtun Student Federation Sindh president Rehman Babar led the protest where participants demanded that the four policemen accused of the crime should be brought to court and sent to jail.

Holding banners and posters inscribed with words against the “excesses” of the Peshawar police and for justice for Tehkali, the protesters also chanted slogans against the KP police. They expressed a lack of faith in an inquiry conducted by the police department itself. They called for a judicial commission instead.

They said that it was high time they spoke up against such injustices. “The policemen involved in the scandal have broken ethical norms and tarnished the image of the force,” Aslam said. The Peshawar High Court has instructed the provincial police chief to conduct a transparent investigation and punish those responsible so that such an incident did not occur in the future.