ISLAMABAD: Police in Pakistan’s federal capital suspended one of its officials on Saturday after a local lawyer visiting his office accused him of torturing a citizen who had earlier been taken into custody and brought to the precinct in the G-9 neighborhood of the city.
The lawyer, Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir, said in a Twitter post she was visiting the police station when she “heard screams” from one of the rooms where she found the Station House Officer (SHO) beating a man on the floor.
In a video recorded at the SHO’s office, she said it was a case of “custodial torture” while maintaining in another Twitter post that the man inflicting violence on the unknown citizen had “no business being on the police force.”
“The SHO has been suspended on the instructions of the federal interior minister to ensure a fair inquiry into the incident of torture against a citizen at the Karachi Company Police Station,” the police announced on the social media website on Saturday. “Strict action will be taken if [the SHO is] found guilty. Any law enforcer found involved in any illegal activity will not be tolerated.”
Custodial torture is not uncommon in Pakistan where police are widely believed to use it to obtain confessions. In the recent case, the suspended SHO asked the lawyer how the issue was relevant to her after she challenged him for allegedly torturing the citizen.
The police said that the decision to suspend the SHO was taken on Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah’s directives to conduct a fair inquiry.
“Strict action will be taken if found guilty; law enforcers found to be involved in any illegal activity will not be tolerated,” the police said.
Earlier, the police said that Islamabad Inspector General of Police (IGP) Islamabad Dr Akbar Nasir Khan took notice of the incident and ordered the Saddar superintendent of police to conduct a transparent inquiry and submit a report under the supervision of the senior superintendent of police (operations).
“There is no room for violence in police custody,” the IGP said.
The allegation against the now suspended SHO Irshad was brought to light by Mazari-Hazir, who said she was at the G9 police station for a separate matter when she “heard screams coming from a smaller room in main SHO’s room.”
“I walked in and saw this SHO Irshad beating the life out of someone in custody. The man was lying on the floor and SHO Irshad was stepping on his face,” she alleged.
Mazari also shared a video of her confrontation with the SHO in which she can be seen asking for the police officer’s badge number while he refuses to oblige.
Upon being questioned by the SHO about how the matter was relevant to her, Mazari said she was a lawyer.
“Thank God there were multiple witnesses other than me who heard the screams. This SHO Irshad has no business being on the police force,” she tweeted and called on the Islamabad police to take action.
She later posted that she had filed a complaint for the registration of a case against the SHO and would be pursuing the matter with her lawyer.
According to the complaint she posted online, the alleged incident occurred at 11pm on Friday. The complaint also alleged that the SHO had taken a bribe from a “person in civilian clothes” who had come out from the room in which the purported custodial torture took place.