Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a young man, Faraz Alam, who has been tortured to death in police custody and the Sindh Provincial Government, has to-date failed to conduct an inquiry and to set up a judicial commission of inquiry into this incident despite promises by the Minister of Information to do so. The young man has been illegally detained for five days and has been severely tortured to obtain a confession to the effect that he was arrested officially after his five days of illegal detention. The post-mortem report on the deceased revealed severe torture marks on different parts of the young man’s body. Police say he died of a heart attack when he was taken to Court. Police are required legally to produce him before the Court within 24 hours of his arrest but he was produced in Court following eight days of his official arrest.
CASE NARRATIVE:
Syed Faraz Alam, 24 years old , the son of Syed Nayyar Alam, resident of Gulistan-e-Johar, Karachi, in the Sindh, was arrested on 28th December 2014, at around 22.45 by plain clothed policemen from Khokhrapar police station, about 10 kilometers from his house and has been taken to an unknown location. On 2nd January 2015, at the Korangi Industrial Area police station at approximately 23.30 he has been booked on charges of possession of illegal arms. During this period he was severely tortured in order to extract a confession for an incident of target killing. Simultaneously, police filed more cases in Saud Abad and the Khokhrapar police stations on different charges including murder. According to media reports police have stated that initially the suspect was captured for carrying an unlicensed weapon and that he had at the outset admitted to being associated in three instances of homicide in 2012 relating to the slaughtering of four men inside the purview of the Khokhrapar police headquarters. The Saud Abad police have booked him in a case for disturbing the law and order. The last two cases have been filed after his death in custody.
The name of the victim has never been mentioned in the First Information Report (FIR) but the said FIR was filed in the name of an “unknown” person. He was tortured to confess not only a murder charge but also to extract names of activists of a political party, the MQM – which holds a considerable number of seats in the national and provincial assemblies, and in the Senate.
On 10th January 2015, his dead body was allegedly shifted to Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC), a hospital under the Federal Government, where the post-mortem was conducted and it was found that there were many injury marks on his body including on his back and evidence of sustaining electrical shots on his genitals, the anus and also torture marks on both his legs.
The family members of the victim have told the media that during his custody the police had not allowed any meetings with him for the family members and had always asked for huge amounts of money as bribes in order for them to absolve him of his crimes. When family members were not able to arrange such huge sums of money – approximately Pakistan Rupees one million – the police have threatened that Syed Faraz Alam can be killed in an ‘encounter’. A leader of the MQM party Mr. Rizvi, as provided the names of the police officers who demanded the bribes from the family to end the case against the deceased and later had asked for another Rs.10,000 to refrain from requesting the Court to grant police custody (police remand) of the accused.
Following his death, the MQM held a day of mourning in Karachi, the capital city of Sindh Province, in protest of his extra judicial killing. Following the protests the Chief Minister of the Province announced the conduct of an inquiry by a committee under a high ranking police officer. The Provincial Minister of Information also announced in a press conference that the government will form a judicial inquiry into this incident. Despite all such promises, to date, no police inquiry has been commenced nor has there been set up any judicial commission. The Provincial Government in an effort to calm down the citizens have suspended one police officer Ali Abbas, as a mere eye wash, and the officer in question is yet serving as the SHO.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
On 5th September 2014, the Federal Government launched an operation in Karachi, the capital of Sindh, under the title: “Targeted Operation” with the support of the police and Pakistan Rangers ‘supposedly’ against the increase in targeted killings, extortion, kidnappings and incidents of terrorism including bomb blasts. The Pakistan Rangers have been given powers of arrest and detain suspects including the permission to shoot on sight. The operation has mainly focused on Lair, the Baloch dominated area and one ethnic political party.
Despite the operation there has been no reduction in the crime rate during the last three months. Every day in Karachi an average of ten persons become victims of targeted killing and sectarian violence and the so called ‘operation’ has not yielded any positive results to halt the crimes.
The law enforcing agencies have arrested more than 20,000 persons and only 1,900 have been sent to jails whereas more than 300 persons were killed in encounters or extra judicial killings during the year 2014. Mostly the remaining persons so arrested have been released upon receiving bribes.
The political party in Karachi, the MQM, claims that since the commencement of this operation, 45 activists have disappeared following arrest by the Pakistan Rangers and the police and among these were found the 18 activists’ whose bodies were riddled with torture wounds. The government has to-date not conducted any inquiries.
In a similar incident a 17 year old boy – Mr. Anisur Rehman Soomro the son of Mr. Anwer Soomro, 17 years old and a student of 10th grade, and a Sindhi national – was arrested, illegally detained for eleven days, tortured in full view of his father demanding a huge sum of money and later shot dead by the Police on the pretext of the boy being a member of Taliban. According to his father, the enraged police officer had taken the boy and three other young men, to an Afghan refugee camp in the late hours of the day and shot him, point blank, killing the boy on the spot. The police had later released a statement saying that the killing had taken place in a skirmish with Taliban forces and that explosives were recovered from their possession, following the incidents: AHRC-UAC-069-2014; AHRC-UAC-105-2014; AHRC-UAC-097-2014; and AHRC-STM-238-2013.
SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write letters to the following authorities calling them to conduct a judicial inquiry in to this case of extra judicial killing and the torture of Faraz Alam in police custody. Please urge them to take immediate action against the station head officers (SHOs) of three Korang police stations, Saud Abad police station and Khokhrapar police station for filing fake cases against the victim and torturing him in custody. The government of Sindh must pay compensation to the victim’s family.
The AHRC will write a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteurs on the Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment, and on extra judicial killings calling for their intervention into this matter.
To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear ………………..,
PAKISTAN: Government of Sindh fails to conduct inquiry into the custodial death of a young man
Name of victim:
Syed Faraz Alam son of Syed Nayyar Alam, resident of A-53, Rado Appartment, Block no 12, Gulistan-e-Johar, Karachi, Sindh
Names of alleged perpetrators:
1. Sindh police, Karachi
2. Station House Officer (SHO) Korangi Industrial Area police station, Karachi
3. Station House Officer (SHO) Khokhrapar Par police station, Karachi
4. Station House Officer (SHO) Saud Abad police station, Karachi
Date of incident: January 10, 2014
Place of incident: Korangi Industrial Area police station
I am writing to voice my deep concern regarding the custodial torture and extra judicial killing of a Faraz Alam, a young man who was kept in illegal detention by the police and severely tortured to confess to an incident of a target killing. The police during the custody of Faraz Alam have forced his family to pay Pak Rupees one million as a bribe for his release.
As per the information I received Faraz Alam, who has been tortured to death in police custody and the Sindh Provincial Government has to-date failed to conduct an inquiry and to set up a judicial commission of inquiry into this incident despite promises by the Minister of Information to do so. The young man has been illegally detained for five days and has been severely tortured to obtain a confession to the effect that he was arrested officially. The post-mortem report on the deceased revealed severe torture marks on different parts of the young man’s body. Police say he died of a heart attack when he was taken to Court. Police are required legally to produce him before the Court within 24 hours of his arrest but he was produced in Court following eight days of his arrest.
It is unfortunate and shocking and it disgusts me to note that the Sindh Government has not yet initiated any inquiry into this case, especially following promises by both the Chief Minister himself and the Minister for Information to the family members that they would do so, following agitations by family members, the political party MQM, and the general public.
I received the information that Syed Faraz Alam, 24 years old, the son of Syed Nayyar Alam, resident of Gulistan-e-Johar, Karachi, in the Sindh, was arrested on 28th December 2014, at around 22.45 by plain clothed policemen from Khokhrapar police station, about 10 kilometers from his house and has been taken to an unknown location. On 2nd January 2015, at the Korangi Industrial Area police station at approximately 23.30 he has been booked on charges of possession of illegal arms. During this period he was severely tortured in order to extract a confession for an incident of target killing. Simultaneously, police filed more cases in Saud Abad and the Khokhrapar policed stations on different charges including murder. According to media reports police have stated that initially the suspect was captured for carrying an unlicensed weapon and that he had at the outset admitted to being associated in three instances of homicide in 2012 relating to the slaughtering of four men inside the purview of the Khokhrapar police headquarters. The Saud Abad police have booked him in a case for disturbing the law and order. The last two cases have been filed after his death in custody.
The name of the victim has never been mentioned in the First Information Report but the said FIR was filed in the name of an “unknown” person. He was tortured to confess not only a murder charge but also to extract names of activists of a political party, the MQM – which holds a considerable number of seats in the national and provincial assemblies, and in the Senate.
On 10th January 2015, his dead body was allegedly shifted to Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC), a hospital under the Federal Government, where the post-mortem was conducted and it was found that there were many injury marks on his body including on his back and evidence of sustaining electrical shots on his genitals, the anus and torture marks on both his legs.
The family members of the victim have told the media that during his custody the police had not allowed any meetings with him for the family members and had always asked for huge amounts of money as bribes in order for them to absolve him of his crimes. When family members were not able to arrange such huge sums of money – approximately Pakistan Rupees one million – the police have threatened that Syed Faraz Alam he can be killed in an ‘encounter’. A leader of the MQM party Mr. Rizvi, as provided the names of the police officers who demanded the bribes from the family to end the case against the deceased and later had asked for another Rs.10,000 to refrain from requesting the Court to grant police custody (police remand) of the accused.
Following his death, the MQM held a day of mourning in Karachi, the capital city of Sindh Province, in protest of his extra judicial killing. Following the protests the Chief Minister of the Province announced the conduct of an inquiry by a committee under a high ranking police officer. The Provincial Minister of Information also announced in a press conference that the government will form a judicial inquiry into this incident. Despite all such promises, to date, no police inquiry has been commenced nor has there been set up any judicial commission. The Provincial Government in an effort to calm down the citizens have suspended one police officer Ali Abbas, as a mere eye wash, and the officer in question is yet serving as the SHO.
On 5th September 2014, the Federal Government launched an operation in Karachi, the capital of Sindh, under the title: “Targeted Operation” with the support of the police and Pakistan Rangers ‘supposedly’ against the increase in targeted killings, extortion, kidnappings and incidents of terrorism including bomb blasts. The Pakistan Rangers have been given powers of arrest and detain suspects including the permission to shoot on sight. The operation has mainly focused on Lyari, the Baloch dominated area and one ethnic political party.
Despite the operation there has been no reduction in the crime rate during the last three months. Every day in Karachi an average of ten persons become victims of targeted killing and sectarian violence and the so called ‘operation’ has not yielded any positive results to halt the crimes.
The law enforcing agencies have arrested more than 20,000 persons and only 1,900 have been sent to jails whereas more than 300 persons were killed in encounters or extra judicial killings during the year 2014. Mostly the remaining persons so arrested have been released upon receiving bribes.
The political party in Karachi, the MQM, claims that since the commencement of this operation, 45 activists have disappeared following arrest by the Pakistan Rangers and the police and among these were found the 18 activists’ whose bodies were riddled with torture wounds. In this instance too the government has to-date not conducted any inquiries.
In consideration of all of the above, I urge you to immediately conduct a judicial inquiry in to this case of extra judicial killing and the torture of Faraz Alam in police custody. I also urge your good offices to take immediate action against the station head officers (SHOs) of three Korang police stations, Saud Abad police station and Khokhrapar police station for filing fake cases against the victim and torturing him in custody and urge the government of Sindh to pay compensation to the victim’s family for their grave loss.
Yours sincerely,
……………….
PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:
1. Mr. Mian Nawaz Sharif
Prime Minister
Prime Minister House
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 922 1596
Tel: +92 51 920 6111
E-mail: secretary@cabinet.gov.pk or pspm@pmsectt.gov.pk
2. Syed Qaim Ali Shah
Chief Minister Sindh
Karachi, Sindh Province
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 21 920 2000
Email: pressecy@cmsindh.gov.pk
3. Mr. Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan
Federal Minister
Ministry of Interior
R Block, Pak Secretariat
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Tel: 92 51 9212026
Fax: 92 51 9202624
Email: interior.complaintcell@gmail.com, ministry.interior@gmail.com
4. Mr. Pervez Rashid
Federal Minister
Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights
Old US Aid building
Ata Turk Avenue
G-5, Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 9204108
Email: contact@molaw.gov.pk
5. Mr. Tahir Shahbaz
Registrar
Supreme Court of Pakistan
Constitution Avenue, Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 9213452
Email: mail@supremecourt.gov.pk
6. Chief Justice of Sindh High Court
High Court Building
Saddar, Karachi
Sindh Province
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 21 9213220
Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrc.asia)
