When torture is a way of life

Zoha Imran, only a year and a half old, did not know what death meant till her father, Muhammad Imran, was tortured and killed by the police. Her family lives in Wafaqi Colony. Her father, only 28, was tortured to death by the staffers at the Muslim Town Police Station. Imran is just one of the 92 percent detainees who are tortured in police custody, according to a study conducted by Dr Waseem Haider. “The main reasons why the police torture the detainees are non-professional attitude, induction of policemen against merit policy, a common perception in police force that torture is easiest way to compel detainees to confess crimes, lack of training in investigation methods, uncouth behaviour of cops, lenient attitude of police high-ups towards their subordinates on torture issue and the desire of policemen to extort money from the detainees’ relative by threatening torture. Still a more important reason is the harassment the family has to face if they complain against police torture,” Haider said.
The report reveals that the law enforcement agencies deem themselves above the law and carry out physical torture with impunity.
The study throws the light on the brutal and inhuman attitude of police towards the detainees that despite Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif’s vociferous claims of bringing revolutionary changes in police culture, the detainees were passing through an ordeal that could not be expressed in words. The study highlighted the Punjab government’s antipathy towards executing the Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) that prohibited all kinds of physical torture on detentions.
PUNISHED FOR BEING WOMEN,AGAIN: The situation is not good for women as well because the study further reveals that 9 percent detained women also bear inhuman physical torture of police while 13 percent of the confined women were subjected to psychological torture too.
The survey was carried out on the 1,820 cases reported to Punjab Surgeon Medico Legal Office for medico-legal examination during the five years. He said women were being tortured all over the world. He said men subjected women to violence at home, atrocities in war and abuse in jails.
“The police usually target the detainees who fall within 15 to 30 years because they know that they would have the stamina to put up with torture,” the study revealed, adding that psychological impact of the torture haunted the victims throughout their lives and most of them either adopted a criminal life or become psycho patients.
THE TOUGHEST GET IT TOUGH: The study disclosed that 16.42 percent of youth aged 15 to 19, 25.38 percent adults aged between 20 to 24 and 18.9 percent of adults aged 25 to 29 years were tortured by the police. According to study, about 19 percent of the detainees were subject to mechanical violence.
Interestingly, no class is saved from the cruel clutches of policemen. However, it is a labour class that is an easiest victim of police torture. The detainees hailing the labour class were more in numbers than those belonging to business community. If the detainee is from a rural background, the torture becomes more severe.
According to study more people in the rural areas were subjected to torture as compared to the urban areas. The study reveals that about 28 percent victims after experiencing physical torture withdrew from launching complaints under the pressure of the police while only 72 percent of the victims had gone to the judiciary after their torture and were allowed to be examined by the Medico Legal Department. The study points out that police uses old torture techniques to afflict on detainees and these techniques are rolling heavy objects over the prisoners, jumping on them, placing them on ice blocks, hanging them by their arms and upside down.
COMMON TORTURE METHODS: The study also reveals that the police usually target the buttocks, foot soles, back, front and back of thighs, palms and wrists. “The most common tool used to inflict pain is the cane stick and a broad flat leather slipper (dipped in mustard oil to inflict maximum pain).
RUTHLESS: “In legal language violence s defined as the threatened or actual use of physical force against another person, oneself, a group or a community, which results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death or deprivation,” Advocate Muhammad Javed Butter said while talking to Pakistan Today. He said the police made friends with the medico-legal officers and used different methods of influence to pressurise the victims. He said victims in most of cases withdrew their complaints because police knew hundreds ways to threaten the victim or victim’s family. He said if a policeman was suspended in this regard, his fellow policemen protected their companion and allowed the suspended police official to use police resources with impunity to settle the matter.