The father of Salahuddin Ayubi — the suspected ATM robber whose video captured by a CCTV camera had been doing rounds over the electronic media in recent days– has filed an FIR [First Information Report] against police officials who he claimed had “brutally murdered” his son.
A resident of Gujrat’s Kamonkey district, Salahuddin was arrested from Rahim Yar Khan from an ATM booth where he was allegedly attempting another robbery. Following his arrest, he was reported dead on Sunday. The district police officer’s spokesperson had earlier claimed that Salahuddin had pretended to be speech impaired and was also perhaps behaving like a “mad man” in order to evade arrest.
The FIR was subsequently lodged against Rahim Yar Khan’s City A-Division’s Station House Officer Mehmoodul Hassan and investigation officers Sub-Inspector Shafaat Ali and Assistant Sub-Inspector Matloob Hussain on the complaint of Salahuddin’s father Mohammad Afzaal.
Afzaal has claimed that his son was mentally challenged, while his legal representative Usama Khawar Ghuman shared pictures of Salahuddin’s body, which showed signs of having undergone extreme torture.
Afzaal’s lawyer insisted that the pictures were clear evidence of torture and expressed regret that “those responsible” for the murder had not been served justice.
This comes after a video of Salahuddin being subject to severe torture by police official surfaced on Wednesday.
The video clearly shows two police officers hurling abuses and assaulting a hapless Salahuddin. In a display of extreme insensitivity, one of the police officers can be seen asking Salahuddin to stick his tongue out the way he did while committing the alleged robbery.
The video also seems to confirm Salahuddin’s father’s claims of him being mentally handicapped.
The video has managed to generate strong reactions from Pakistan’s online community who have called on the Punjab government to take immediate action against the policemen for this despicable act of brutality.
