Pakistan: Man tortured to death in 'illegal custody'

Islamabad [Pakistaan], March 22 : A man, who was in custody illegally in Pakistan died at a police station after alleged custodial torture, Dawn reported.
After the death in the custody of Merwala check-post in the Jatoi police station area, six police officers, including a sub-inspector, were booked in a murder case and were also suspended.
The deceased was identified as Muhammad Safdar, who was taken into custody by the Jatoi police five days back. However, his arrest was not registered, the report stated, adding that the body was found hanging in the lock-up of the check-post in the morning.
After the incident, Safdar's family alleged that the police subjected him to severe torture during interrogation and killed him. His body was shifted to the hospital for a post-mortem. The police claimed that Safdar committed suicide by hanging himself and that he was on remand in a robbery case, reported Dawn.
A murder case was registered against the suspected policemen on the complaint of the deceased's family.
DPO Syed Raza Safdar Kazmi suspended sub-inspector Imam Bakhsh Naveed along with five other police officers from service. He said action would be taken against officials if the allegations of torture proved against them, the reported stated, adding that he formed a committee to probe the incident.
Further, according to the police, Arshad Taqi, a filling station owner in the Mahmood Kot area of Kot Addu, told the police three suspects, Aamir Ahmed, Abdul Razzaq and Juma Khan, came to his petrol pump and showed him a currency bill of 1m USD and its related documents. They told him that the USD bill was worth Rs 280m but they would sell it in exchange of Rs100 m. Taqi was tricked into paying them an advance amount of Rs 0.8m. He later found out the bill was fake. A case was registered against three suspects on the complaint of Taqi, reported Dawn.