LAHORE: Allegations have surfaced that a security guard in the Gul Kali locality of North Cantt was held in illegal confinement for around five hours and subjected to torture, while a video showing the guard being forced into a police mobile has also come to light.
The video shows uniformed police personnel seizing the guard, Ali Raza, by the collar and putting him into a police mobile.
According to Ali Raza, he was performing security duty at the gate outside a plot in Gul Kali when police personnel entered the premises. He said that during this time he neither stopped the personnel, nor was discourteous to them, nor offered any resistance.
Ali Raza alleged that police personnel brought labourers out of the plot after detaining them, and that after leaving the plot they suddenly subjected him to torture and put him into the police mobile.
According to the guard, he was taken to the police station where he was allegedly tortured, and that on the orders of the Station House Officer he was also assaulted on sensitive parts of the body.
Ali Raza said he was released after being held in illegal confinement for roughly five hours. He said police neither registered a case against him nor explained the reason for holding him at the station.
The guard has demanded that senior officers take notice of the alleged torture by the SHO and the police personnel concerned.
The allegations, if established, engage several strands of law. Custodial torture was criminalised as a distinct offence in Pakistan through the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention and Punishment) Act, 2022, which was enacted specifically to close the gap left by reliance on general hurt provisions of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Detention without registration of a case is separately constrained. Article 10 of the Constitution guarantees safeguards on arrest and detention, and the Code of Criminal Procedure requires that a person taken into custody be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours. Wrongful confinement is itself an offence under the Penal Code.
Punjab Police departmental rules additionally provide for disciplinary proceedings against officers found responsible for excess, and complaints of this nature are ordinarily routed through the district police officer, the Regional Police Officer, or the Punjab Police Complaint Authority.
Footage circulating on social media has, in a number of recent Punjab cases, been the trigger for departmental inquiries rather than the outcome of them. Video ordinarily establishes the fact of a person being taken into a police vehicle; it does not by itself establish what occurred subsequently inside a police station, which is why medico-legal examination and an independent inquiry are the decisive steps.
In accordance with The Lahore Times editorial policy, the position of the police station concerned and of the officers named in the allegations was sought. No official response had been received at the time of filing. The allegations reported above are those made by Ali Raza and have not been independently established. This report will be updated if a police response is provided.
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