Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hasan Lanjar on Sunday ordered a judicial inquiry into the custodial death of a teenager in Karachi due to alleged torture.
The teenager, Muhammad Irfan, 18, was arrested by the police’s Special Investigation Unit (SIU) along with three of his friends on October 22.
SIU Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Amjad Ahmed Shaikh said Sunrise They were brought to the SIU/CIA Center in Saddar around 5:30 pm on the same day, and 15 minutes later, Irfan’s health condition deteriorated. He was taken to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC), where doctors declared him dead on arrival, he said.
Police claimed the boy died of a heart attack, while his relatives allege he was tortured to death. Preliminary results of his post-mortem examination, conducted in the presence of a judicial magistrate at JPMC, suggested the presence of multiple injuries on the teenager’s body, according to doctors and police.
In a statement issued today, the Home Ministry spokesperson said: “The Home Minister has directed the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) to initiate the judicial inquiry process into the case.”
It has been ordered that “a thorough forensic investigation into the incident be carried out and all those involved must be punished.”
“The case must be brought to a logical conclusion with the help of modern techniques,” the statement said.
“I regret that the child died in police custody,” Lanjar said.
Protest
On Saturday, family members of the deceased and others staged a sit-in at an Edhi mortuary in Sohrab Goth while carrying the coffin of the victim, whose body was kept in the mortuary, and blocked the main road.
The protest, which lasted several hours, ended Saturday night after “senior police authorities” assured them that justice would be done, said journalist Shahid Jatoi, one of the protesters.
He said Irfan’s coffin was brought to his native village, Bait Ahmed, in Ahmedpur East, Bahawalpur district, on Saturday night, where “thousands of people” attended his funeral prayer.
He said, “Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) SIU spoke to the family members and promised that after receiving the final report from the doctors, section 302 (intentional murder) would be incorporated in the first information report (FIR) of the case.”
FIR
An FIR of the incident was registered at Saddar Police Station following a complaint by Mumtaz Ahmed, Station House Officer (SHO) of the SIU and Criminal Investigation Agency (CIA), under sections 34 (common intention) and 319 (involuntary manslaughter) of the Pakistan Penal Code against seven designated officers of the SIU/CIA.
The FIR said four persons were detained by the SIU police party from Lilly Bridge near Cantonment station in Frere police station limits on October 22.
The FIR added that they were arrested on information provided by a special informant, a case was registered against the four on the same day and they were handed over to an assistant sub-inspector (ASI).
SHO Ahmed said he came to know from the investigating officer (IO) of the case that two other assistant sub-inspectors had continued questioning Irfan when his health suddenly deteriorated and he fell unconscious.
The SHO added that the IO took Irfan to the hospital without informing him. SHO Ahmed said the SIU staff had committed “negligence” during the arrest and custody of Irfan. He said it emerged that the registration of the case against the deceased was also “doubtful” and the entire matter raised suspicions.
On Saturday, Karachi police arrested two policemen named in the FIR. Earlier on Friday, seven police officers were suspended after the incident came to light.
