Six police officers, including a sub-inspector, were nominated in a criminal case for allegedly torturing a man, identified as Amir Masih, to death in Lahore, the media reported on Tuesday.
According to a first information report (FIR) lodged on the complaint of the victim’s brother, Amir was summoned at North Cantt police station by Sub-Inspector Zeeshan on August 28.
Amir, who worked as a gardener in Lahore’s P.F Colony, was arrested over charges of street crime and was taken to an unidentified location where he was reportedly tortured.
On September 2, two unidentified officers dropped Amir in a near dead condition outside a hospital. He was taken to the Services Hospital where he passed away while his body was been shifted to another hospital for postmortem.
Punjab InspectorGeneral of Police (IGP) Arif Nawaz Khan took notice of the incident and ordered that a case be registered against SI Zeeshan, Investigation Officer (IO) Nasir Baig and four other officers and asked for a detailed report to be submitted within a day.
Police have arrested Baig and North Cantt police station’s Station House Officer (SHO) Khurram Gul, while Zeeshan is at large.
It is pertinent to mention here that this is the third case of police brutality to have surfaced within a week. Earlier on Sunday, ATM thief Salahuddin Ayubi, a mentally disabled man, died in police custody.
On the other hand, another man also died on the same day after being kept in an illegal torture cell being run by Gujjarpura police.
Punjab IGP had expressed his displeasure and released a handout on Monday with clear instructions to all the field officers that “no officer will be spared if such crime was reported in any part of the province”.
