SHO suspended over ‘illegal detention’ of youth

KARACHI: The Landhi police SHO and five other policemen were suspended and booked on charges of illegally confining a young man following a protest by relatives and neighbours, officials said on Friday.

Mohammed Faisal was allegedly detained by the Landhi police two days back and his whereabouts had since been not known. On Thursday night, relatives protested outside the Landhi police station. The protest continued into Friday morning, prompting intervention by higher authorities.

Korangi SSP Junaid Ahmed Shaikh held talks with the protesters on Friday morning, suspended Landhi SHO Saadat Butt and ordered registration of an FIR against him and other policemen who had accompanied him during the arrest of the man. They ended the protest after assurances that justice would be provided to them.

Relatives told media persons that two days back two rickshaw drivers fought with each other in Landhi. In the meantime, a police party arrived there and took away Faisal, who was just a bystander.

The new officer-in-charge of the Landhi police station, Ahmed Butt, told Dawn that the relatives claimed that area people stood witness that Fayyaz was taken away by the police and they had also seen him in the police lock-up, but after 24 hours the police denied that they had detained him.

He added that the Landhi police registered an FIR (142/2015) against SHO Saadat Butt and five other policemen on a complaint of the detained person’s father, Mohammed Qasim, under Sections 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The officer said that no one had been arrested and the matter was being personally monitored by the Karachi East DIG and the Korangi SSP.

Published in: Dawn

Category: Illegal detention