Three people have died in Punjab police’s custody over the last few days. These included mentally ill Salahuddin Ayubi, who was caught after breaking into an ATM machine. The video of him making faces at the CCTV camera went viral. Within two days of the arrest he was reported dead. The police claimed that Ayubi was a “mad” person who suddenly fell ill and was pronounced dead when he was taken to a hospital. His family learnt about it only from the media. Information about his arrest and death was not conveyed to the family even though their address was tattooed on Ayubi’s arm.
In another incident during this period, gardener Muhammad Ali also died in police custody in Lahore. Ali was held up illegally, not in the police station, but at a private torture cell maintained by a police official. Ali, allegedly subjected to torture, was also pronounced dead when taken to a hospital.
In Rawalpindi cantonment, another private police torture cell was detected recently when, on a complaint, a senior police officer visited the concerned police station. It transpired that the suspects held in the lock up were actually arrested and were kept at a private detention centre for nearly three weeks without any case being registered.
When the case came to light, some junior police officials operating private torture cells were suspended but the SHO was not questioned.
Custodial killings and torture in detention centres of law enforcement agencies is not new. It has been a common practice with the law enforcement agencies, whether federal or provincial. Every time it is reported that the prime minister or a chief minister or a police chief takes “serious notice.” A probe is ordered and promises of stern action are made. People are assured of police reforms, installation of CCTV cameras at police stations and ending the “thana culture” but there is no change.
These incidents of custodial deaths and private torture cells are neither the first nor will they be the last. Private torture cells are widely acknowledged. A former IG police recently admitted in Lahore of police preference to investigate suspects at private locations.
Privately, police officers have confessed to employing torture by various means to extract confessions. They have also explained these torture methods. The most common is that the suspect is hung upside down and beaten with a stick or leather belt, or with hands and legs bound, is tied to a bed and body repeatedly struck with iron rods.
Torture by police and law enforcement agencies is often under-reported and is difficult to prove in medical reports. At the internment centres set up in erstwhile tribal areas and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under a Presidential Regulation in 2011, the suspects have been kept incommunicado and, in many cases, even without trial. Allegations of torture gains credence as even members of the parliament are not been allowed to visit.
The Peshawar High Court recently overturned scores of convictions awarded by military courts to inmates of these centres because of confessions allegedly extracted under torture.
A report earlier this year by the National Commission of Human Rights (NCHR) has documented police torture in just one district of Faisalabad over a period of seven years. It found 1,424 cases of torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by the police during 2006-12. No official inquiry was held by any government body into any of these cases despite mandatory legal requirements, the report said.
Worse still is the military-controlled Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) which refused to give any update to the NCHR on a case of torture under its watch. No one knows what is happening inside the detention centres operated by state agencies. Even in normal jails, which are supposedly regulated by jail manuals, army units deployed there act beyond remit. Let anyone try to visit MNAs Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar locked in Haripur Jail to see how this most basic legal right is denied.
Pakistan signed and ratified in 2010 the Convention Against Torture (CAT), making it obligatory to form domestic laws against torture and custodial killings in accordance with internationally accepted principles. However, this has not been done. In March 2015, a private member bill, duly supported by the Ministries of Interior and Law and Justice was unanimously passed by the Senate.
When it could not be passed by the National Assembly within 90 days, it was referred in February 2017 to the joint sitting of the parliament through a unanimous resolution of the Senate. But it has not been on the agenda of any of the several joint sessions held since then.
The PTI government had promised to make legislation to criminalise enforced disappearances as well as prevention of torture. However, nothing has been done so far. The Human Rights ministry did not adopt the private bill already passed by the Senate and insisted on preparing another bill of its own. The new proposed bill is shuttling between various ministries for the last over one year and has not placed before the parliament to this day.
The mover of the private anti-torture bill passed by the Senate offered the PTI government a chance to adopt the law by deleting his name. That offer, too, has not been accepted. Meanwhile torture, custodial killings, private torture cells and opaque detention continue in violation of Pakistan’s international human rights obligations.
The writer served on the Human Rights Committee of the Senate
In another incident during this period, gardener Muhammad Ali also died in police custody in Lahore. Ali was held up illegally, not in the police station, but at a private torture cell maintained by a police official. Ali, allegedly subjected to torture, was also pronounced dead when taken to a hospital.
In Rawalpindi cantonment, another private police torture cell was detected recently when, on a complaint, a senior police officer visited the concerned police station. It transpired that the suspects held in the lock up were actually arrested and were kept at a private detention centre for nearly three weeks without any case being registered.
When the case came to light, some junior police officials operating private torture cells were suspended but the SHO was not questioned.
Custodial killings and torture in detention centres of law enforcement agencies is not new. It has been a common practice with the law enforcement agencies, whether federal or provincial. Every time it is reported that the prime minister or a chief minister or a police chief takes “serious notice.” A probe is ordered and promises of stern action are made. People are assured of police reforms, installation of CCTV cameras at police stations and ending the “thana culture” but there is no change.
These incidents of custodial deaths and private torture cells are neither the first nor will they be the last. Private torture cells are widely acknowledged. A former IG police recently admitted in Lahore of police preference to investigate suspects at private locations.
Privately, police officers have confessed to employing torture by various means to extract confessions. They have also explained these torture methods. The most common is that the suspect is hung upside down and beaten with a stick or leather belt, or with hands and legs bound, is tied to a bed and body repeatedly struck with iron rods.
Torture by police and law enforcement agencies is often under-reported and is difficult to prove in medical reports. At the internment centres set up in erstwhile tribal areas and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under a Presidential Regulation in 2011, the suspects have been kept incommunicado and, in many cases, even without trial. Allegations of torture gains credence as even members of the parliament are not been allowed to visit.
The Peshawar High Court recently overturned scores of convictions awarded by military courts to inmates of these centres because of confessions allegedly extracted under torture.
A report earlier this year by the National Commission of Human Rights (NCHR) has documented police torture in just one district of Faisalabad over a period of seven years. It found 1,424 cases of torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by the police during 2006-12. No official inquiry was held by any government body into any of these cases despite mandatory legal requirements, the report said.
Worse still is the military-controlled Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) which refused to give any update to the NCHR on a case of torture under its watch. No one knows what is happening inside the detention centres operated by state agencies. Even in normal jails, which are supposedly regulated by jail manuals, army units deployed there act beyond remit. Let anyone try to visit MNAs Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar locked in Haripur Jail to see how this most basic legal right is denied.
Pakistan signed and ratified in 2010 the Convention Against Torture (CAT), making it obligatory to form domestic laws against torture and custodial killings in accordance with internationally accepted principles. However, this has not been done. In March 2015, a private member bill, duly supported by the Ministries of Interior and Law and Justice was unanimously passed by the Senate.
When it could not be passed by the National Assembly within 90 days, it was referred in February 2017 to the joint sitting of the parliament through a unanimous resolution of the Senate. But it has not been on the agenda of any of the several joint sessions held since then.
The PTI government had promised to make legislation to criminalise enforced disappearances as well as prevention of torture. However, nothing has been done so far. The Human Rights ministry did not adopt the private bill already passed by the Senate and insisted on preparing another bill of its own. The new proposed bill is shuttling between various ministries for the last over one year and has not placed before the parliament to this day.
The mover of the private anti-torture bill passed by the Senate offered the PTI government a chance to adopt the law by deleting his name. That offer, too, has not been accepted. Meanwhile torture, custodial killings, private torture cells and opaque detention continue in violation of Pakistan’s international human rights obligations.
The writer served on the Human Rights Committee of the Senate