The Sindh High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the home secretary, IGP Sindh and SSP Korangi among other official respondents to file comments on a petition seeking judicial inquiry into the alleged custodial death of the Muttahida Quomi Movement (MQM) activist.
A division bench headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah also issued notice to the provincial law officer to file the comments by February 9.
The bench had taken up a petition filed by Syed Mateen Hussain, maternal uncle of the deceased MQM activist, Syed Faraz Alam, pleading to the court to order judicial probe into his death. He further requested the court to order registration of an FIR against the police officers involved in his custodial death.
The petitioner submitted that Alam was picked up by the police personnel from his house in Malir area on December 28. It was when his relatives approached the SHC against his illegal detention by the law enforcement agencies. The Khokhrapar police implicated him in various criminal cases because of his political affiliation, he added.
Subsequently, he said, Alam was remanded in police custody for seven days by a judicial magistrate for further interrogation. The petitioner alleged that during his custody, the police personnel subjected him to sever torture as result of which he suffered internal injuries and died.
He told the judges that despite assurances of the authorities concerned, the police had not yet registered an FIR regarding custodial death of the MQM activist.