Dear Friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding a man being tortured to death in a private torture cell while in police custody. To hide their crime, the police declared the victim died of heart failure. The victim remained in private custody of the policemen for seven days. When his family filed the case of habeas corpus in a local court, the victim was declared arrested on that day, and declared dead while in custody the next day. The family has noted torture marks on the body during the final rituals, including burns from what seem to be electric shocks. A district police officer has denied that the victim died as a result of custodial torture. The family demands registration of a murder case against the In-charge of Donga Gali Police Station, Abbottabad.
CASE NARRATIVE:
The AHRC has received the following information from Human Development Organisation (HDO), an organization that works for the rehabilitation of torture victims and provides free legal aid.
On June 28, Inspector Munawar Khan, the Station House Officer (SHO) of Doonga Gali Police Station, located in District Abbottabad, KPK Province, took Yasir Farid Khan, 28, into custody. At around 3 p.m., while he was walking outside his home Yasir Farid Khan was picked up by the police officer and forcibly driven to an unknown location. When family member approached the Police Station, they were told that Yasir had been taken for interrogation in relation to a car theft case and would be sent back shortly after brief questioning. Despite repeated attempts, Yasir’s father and brother were not allowed access to Yasir. The SHO then denied that Yasir was in detention.
On July 4, Waleed Khan, Yasir’s brother, moved a habeas corpus petition in District Court, Abbottabad, alleging death in custody of Yasir and prayed Yasir’s immediate recovery. The Court sent a bailiff to the Police Station Donga Gali the same evening, but failed to find Yasir or locate his whereabouts. However, the next day the family received a call from the Police Station that Yasir had died of a heart attack during detention and that his body was in the mortuary of Benazir Shaheed Hospital Abbottabad. It is said that the Donga Gali Police Station is running a private torture cell and accused persons are tortured there in order to avoid the blame of torture being conducted inside the actual station.
Yasir’s family collected his body after postmortem. During the last bath before burial, the family found burn marks on the back of the corpse, apparently caused by electric shocks, which were administered to coerce Yasir to confess the crime of car-lifting. Waleed Khan, the victim’s younger brother, said that the right ear of the body was pierced, while a finger of Yasir’s right hand was fractured, and Yasir’s neck, shoulder and knees were also bruised. The family has accused the police of extrajudicially killing Yasir after keeping him in illegal detention for eight days and covering up their crime. According to deceased’s brother Waleed, Yasir was in perfect health and had no prior medical history of any heart ailment.
The HDO has received a copy of the postmortem report, which shows that the stomach of the deceased was empty and the right shoulder, knees, and right finger had bruises. The report did not mention the cause of death and stated that the Medico Legal Officer had send samples of the body to the laboratory for chemical analysis to determine the exact cause of Yasir’s death.
In the meantime, during a media briefing, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Galiyat Circle Arif Javed Khan claimed that Yasir was picked up on the evening of 4 July 2015, when the police identified him as having stolen a car from outside a hotel in Nathiagali on the morning of 21 June 2014. The DSP said that on the evening of July 5, Yasir had complained of pain under his left ribs and was taken for medical examination to the Civil Hospital Nathigali, where the doctor sent him back to the police lock up after necessary medication. However at around 7.30 p.m., according to DSP Arif Javed, the detainee was found dead in the lock up and his autopsy report has confirmed that body carried no torture marks and the cause of death was cardiac arrest.
The DPO also stated that another accused, Abbas, was also arrested, and that Abbas had, in his statement under Section 364 CrPc, confessed before the judge that Yasir was with them when they stole a Corolla car which Yasir took with him, and that Yasir was arrested by the Bagnotar police when he attempted to flee to Muzaffarabad in Azad Jammu Kashmir on July 4. The DSP told the media that the SHO Doonga Gali Munawar Khan had been suspended and the District Judge, Abbottabad, had ordered a judicial inquiry, to be headed by a Senior Civil Judge.
It is pertinent to note that the DSP Arif is deceiving the media by misquoting the date of arrest as July 4. The fact is that Yasir was arrested from outside his home on June 28. The DSP seems to have no idea about the whereabouts of the alleged accused in the prior 6 days.
Yasir was likely held in an illegal detention center / torture cell, where the accused are taken to be tortured to confess. After the confession is extracted, they are taken to the Police Station where a case is then registered against them. Illegal detention centers are an old tactic of police to hide the whereabouts of the accused from the bailiff, so that the accused can be detained in custody indefinitely, or as long as the police official desires. Yasir was never presented before the magistrate despite a lapse of 8 days, whereas the law and the Constitution mandate that the accused must be presented before a court within 24 hours of the arrest.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
The police proactively use extrajudicial killings and torture as a “crime deterrent”. Senior police officers are advocating the practice, terming such killings as the “best modus operandi” to curb crime. Every year, throughout Pakistan, hundreds of lives are taken by the law enforcement agencies in the name of national security and the maintenance of law and order. The State impunity enjoyed by the law enforcement agencies has resulted in a rise in extrajudicial killings that is causing unrest amongst the general populace who live in constant fear for their lives. Fundamental rights are reduced to rights on paper in the context of Pakistan, where worst cases of human rights have been observed at the hands of both State and non-state actors. Absence of the rule of law and the writ of the State has further eroded people’s faith in the system.
Torture in custody is also a negation of the right, as enshrined under Article 14 of the Constitution. The epidemic of heart attacks that seems to affect so many men in custody is also baffling. How can so many able bodied men suffer heart attacks during police custody? Why is the Judiciary not taking cognizance of the rise in the incidents of torture and subsequent death in custody of so many inmates? Pakistan has ratified the United Nations Convention against Torture in 2010, which makes it binding upon Pakistan to pass relevant legislation that brings its law-enforcement apparatus in conformity with the Convention.
SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write letters to the following authorities calling on them to initiate judicial inquiry into the torture and killing of Yasir Farid Khan. Please urge them to prosecute the perpetrators, including the Station House Officer, Inspector Munawar Khan, and the Investigation Officer of Doonga Gali Police Station for keeping the victim in illegal detention and for running private torture cells. The family must be provided compensation; the State is responsible for Yasir’s death.
The AHRC is writing a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and ill treatment calling for his intervention into this matter.
To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear ………………..,
PAKISTAN: Call for probe in custodial death of a young man during illegal detention
Name of victim: Yasir Farid Khan, 28, Village lower Salhad, Abbottabad, KPK Province
Names of alleged perpetrators:
Inspector Munawar Khan, Station House Officer, Doonga Gali Police Station, Abbottabad, KPK Province
Investigation Officer of Doonga Gali Police Station, Abbottabad, KPK Province
Arif Javed Khan, Deputy Superintendent Police, Galiyat Circle, Abbottabad, KPK Province
Date of incident: 5 July 2015
Place of incident: Donga Gali, Abbottabad, KPK Province
I am writing to voice my deep concern about the torture and custodial death of a man from Abbottabad. He has been fatally tortured by the police, who alleged him to be a car thief, and tried to force him to confess to a crime. The man was kept in illegal detention for eight days. following which he died of wounds sustained due to torture. The police are trying to cover up the death insisting that the man died due to a heart attack.
I have received the information that On June 28, Inspector Munawar Khan, the Station House Officer (SHO) of Doonga Gali Police Station, located in District Abbottabad, KPK Province, took Yasir Farid Khan, 28, into custody. At around 3 p.m., while he was walking outside his home Yasir Farid Khan was picked up by the police officer and forcibly driven to an unknown location. When family member approached the Police Station, they were told that Yasir had been taken for interrogation in relation to a car theft case and would be sent back shortly after brief questioning. Despite repeated attempts, Yasir’s father and brother were not allowed access to Yasir. The SHO then denied that Yasir was in detention.
On July 4, Waleed Khan, Yasir’s brother, moved a habeas corpus petition in District Court, Abbottabad, alleging death in custody of Yasir and prayed Yasir’s immediate recovery. The Court sent a bailiff to the Police Station Donga Gali the same evening, but failed to find Yasir or locate his whereabouts. However, the next day the family received a call from the Police Station that Yasir had died of a heart attack during detention and that his body was in the mortuary of Benazir Shaheed Hospital Abbottabad. It is said that the Donga Gali Police Station is running a private torture cell and accused persons are tortured there in order to avoid the blame of torture being conducted inside the actual station.
Yasir’s family collected his body after postmortem. During the last bath before burial, the family found burn marks on the back of the corpse, apparently caused by electric shocks, which were administered to coerce Yasir to confess the crime of car-lifting. Waleed Khan, the victim’s younger brother, said that the right ear of the body was pierced, while a finger of Yasir’s right hand was fractured, and Yasir’s neck, shoulder and knees were also bruised. The family has accused the police of extrajudicially killing Yasir after keeping him in illegal detention for eight days and covering up their crime. According to deceased’s brother Waleed, Yasir was in perfect health and had no prior medical history of any heart ailment.
The copy of the postmortem report showed that the stomach of the deceased was empty and the right shoulder, knees, and right finger had bruises. The report did not mention the cause of death and stated that the Medico Legal Officer had send samples of the body to the laboratory for chemical analysis to determine the exact cause of Yasir’s death.
I am appalled to know that in the meantime, during a media briefing, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Galiyat Circle Arif Javed Khan claimed that Yasir was picked up on the evening of 4 July 2015, when the police identified him as having stolen a car from outside a hotel in Nathiagali on the morning of 21 June 2014. The DSP said that on the evening of July 5, Yasir had complained of pain under his left ribs and was taken for medical examination to the Civil Hospital Nathigali, where the doctor sent him back to the police lock up after necessary medication. However at around 7.30 p.m., according to DSP Arif Javed, the detainee was found dead in the lock up and his autopsy report has confirmed that body carried no torture marks and the cause of death was cardiac arrest.
The DPO also stated that another accused, Abbas, was also arrested, and that Abbas had, in his statement under Section 364 CrPc, confessed before the judge that Yasir was with them when they stole a Corolla car which Yasir took with him, and that Yasir was arrested by the Bagnotar police when he attempted to flee to Muzaffarabad in Azad Jammu Kashmir on July 4. The DSP told the media that the SHO Doonga Gali Munawar Khan had been suspended and the District Judge, Abbottabad, had ordered a judicial inquiry, to be headed by a Senior Civil Judge.
It is pertinent to note that the DSP Arif is deceiving the media by misquoting the date of arrest as July 4. The fact is that Yasir was arrested from outside his home on June 28. The DSP seems to have no idea about the whereabouts of the alleged accused in the prior 6 days.
It was shocking for me that Yasir was held in an illegal detention center / torture cell, where the accused are taken to be tortured to confess. After the confession is extracted, they are taken to the Police Station where a case is then registered against them. Illegal detention centers are an old tactic of police to hide the whereabouts of the accused from the bailiff, so that the accused can be detained in custody indefinitely, or as long as the police official desires. Yasir was never presented before the magistrate despite a lapse of 8 days, whereas the law and the Constitution mandate that the accused must be presented before a court within 24 hours of the arrest.
I strongly believe that torture in custody is also a negation of the fundamental rights, as enshrined under Article 14 of the Constitution. The epidemic of heart attacks that seems to affect so many men in custody is also baffling. How can so many able bodied men suffer heart attacks during police custody? Why is the Judiciary not taking cognizance of the rise in the incidents of torture and subsequent death in custody of so many inmates? Pakistan has ratified the United Nations Convention against Torture in 2010, which makes it binding upon Pakistan to pass relevant legislation that brings its law-enforcement apparatus in conformity with the Convention
I therefore urge upon you to conduct an inquiry into the matter and arrest those responsible for the heinous crime. Yasir’s family must be compensated for their loss and that justice must be served. The government must criminalise the practice of torture and immediately make a law against the practice of torture according to the UN Convection Against Torture (UNCAT).
I hope that you will take prompt action in this case.
Yours Sincerely,
……………….
PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:
1. Mr. Mian Nawaz Sharif
Prime Minister
Prime Minister House
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 922 1596
Telephone: +92 51 920 6111, +92 51 920 6111
E-mail: secretary@cabinet.gov.pk, pspm@pmsectt.gov.pk
2. Mr. Parvez Khattak
Chief Minister KPK
Chief Minister Secretariat Shahibzada Abdul Qayum Road, Peshawar
Telephone: 091-9222460-464
Fax 091-9212237
Email: complaints@crckp.gov.pk
3. Mr. Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan
Minister
Ministry of Interior of Pakistan
R Block, Pak Secretariat
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Telephone: +92 51 9212026
Fax: +92 51 9202624
Email: interior.complaintcell@gmail.com, ministry.interior@gmail.com
4. Mr. Pervez Rashid
Minister
Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights of Pakistan
Old US Aid building
Ata Turk Avenue
G-5, Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 9204108
Email: contact@molaw.gov.pk
5.Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court
Peshawar High Court, Khyber Road, Peshawar,
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
Telephone:+92-91-9210149-58
Fax: +92-91-9210170
6. Mr. Nasir Durrani
Inspector General Police Kyber Pakhtunkhwa
Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum Road, Civil Secretariat Peshawar,
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Telephone 9210084
Fax: 9210925
Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrc.asia)
