26th June-- International Day in support of the victims
of torture
"When a murderer is made the judge then one can imagine the situation for justice."
by Baseer
Naveed, senior researcher--south asia,
Asian Human Rights Commission,
Since being an elected member of the Human Rights Council
(HRC) of the United Nations,
Widespread Torture in
If one looks at the statistics, the number of victims of
torture has increased considerably compared to in previous years. In the
combined years of 2004 and 2005 there were 2000 reported cases of torture
committed by the State, however just in the first 5 months of this year over
400 persons from the Balochistan province and 200 persons from Northern areas
of Pakistan, in particular from Tribal areas, were detained and tortured purely
on political grounds by the army, police and other state agencies. Furthermore,
many cases of torture have not been reported to the police because in some
instances it is the law enforcement agencies who are the perpetrators of such
crimes and victims of torture would fear reprisals for reporting their
cases. A recent incident of torture by
law enforcement officials was the brutal death of
It is common practice in
Constitution of
"No person shall be subjected to torture for the purpose of extracting evidences."
Furthermore,
Article 5 of the Charter it states that,
“No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
Therefore,
From the above evidence, what
difference does it make if
Although torture has been made
unlawful in
Furthermore, since 9th May 2006, the date on which
Method of tortures:
In order to obtain information, forced confession and or money from the detainees the Police habitually use many methods of torture. The following are some of the methods of torture used against the detainees in custody:
- Beating the prisoner with fists, legs, or wooden sticks which are called "danda";
- Beating the prisoner using a piece of reinforced leather which is called "chittar";
- Burning the victim with cigarettes buts;
- Verbally abusing the victim with filthy language;
- Forcing the victim to lie on ice blocks and then standing on him or her.
These are only some of the methods used by the Police. The military on the other hand, use much more severe methods of torture, for example:
- They force the detainees to remove all their clothes and then they are forced to dance naked before people for several hours;
- The detainees are forced to do push-ups the whole night; hung from the roof ;
- They force the detainees to submerge their heads in water for extensively long durations;
- They put rats in the detainees’ pants or pajamas;
- They switch on the audio and video cassettes to full volume which have the recordings of the screams of the tortured victims;
- They beat the detainees with iron rods;
- They keep the detainees blind folded for several days;
- They stitch-up the lips of the detainees;
- They do not allow the detainees to go to the toilet;
- Excessive beating the detainees and the use of abusive language.
In November 2004, the Law and
Justice Commission of
Legislation to limit the powers vested with the police in making arbitrary, random arrests without any type of warrant or orders from the magistrates. This Commission recommended various modifications to the Code of Criminal Procedure to check and regulate the discretionary powers the police had been exercising and to protect citizens against harassment.
However, despite these measures, the number of cases of power abuse at the hands of the police have not declined. Ironically, the victims are themselves the civilians that the police are supposed to protect. Sixty-two cases of police abuse of power have been exposed by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) from January 2004 to June 2005 and this does not include the many cases that may not have reached HRCP or the media.
In the Balochistan
An 18-year-old girl
The most recent victim of torture
and death in custody was Hasan Gichki
of
This in not the only case of death in police custody. Prior to this incident, the underworld don Shoaib Khan was found dead in jail under mysterious circumstances. Detainees found dead in custody are always immediately handed over to their next of kin without a second post-mortem.
Details of those who died in custody in Karachchi in the year 2005 and 2006 are as follows:
- Ghulam Rasool Chishti, found dead in Karachi Central Jail in February.
-
-
Muhammad Shahid,
who was referred to the
- Ghulam Hyder died mysteriously in jail on June 30.
-
Imran alias Rizwan, an ailing prisoner, died in
- Siraj Nazeer died in the district Jail Malir on August 15.
- Syed Shaukat Ali died mysteriously in Central Jail on September 8.
- Ghulam Hussain died in mysterious circumstances in the custody of New Town police on September 15.
- Abdul Hamid died in the Central Jail on September 24.
-
Muhammad Arman,
who was referred to
It is believed that those who get
arrested and detained in torture cells run by the army are severely tortured.
In the
According to a Report by HRCP on Police Torture, the police generally victimise males of lower income groups with ages normally varying from late teenage to late thirties. Most of these men are subjected to extortion, abuse, illegal detention and torture. In some cases persons are randomly taken off streets and kept in the lock ups of police stations where they are badly beaten and eventually tortured while their families are informed and made to pay huge amounts to have their relatives released from the custody. This is not only illegal but goes against national and international principles of upholding basic human rights such as the right to freedom of movement and the right to life.
Such crimes have been highlighted by the NGOs, the media
and other Human Rights Organizations. Inquiries into such police brutalities
lead to the suspension of the accused officers however,
such lenient punishments rarely last long with the accused being swiftly
reinstated in his old job. There are
very few ways in which the victim is able to attain justice since the legal
system is very reluctant to put perpetrators to trial and to find them guilty.
In rare cases of convictions the convict always manages to escape. The fact is
that due to the lack of internal and external checks and punishment on the
actions of the police some officers have made their police stations their lair
for torturing and extorting the civilians that they should be protecting.
Irrespective of all the efforts on the part of various Human Rights
Organizations, there seems to be no end to this brutality. The recent case of
torture of the condemned prisoners in
According to the investigation officers Mr. Asad Iqbal Butt and Mr. Abdul Hai of HRCP, the Police Order 2002 forbids the police from using torture and other similar methods to intimidate detainees into responding and even confessing. Yet there were 1100 reported cases of police torture in 2004. Women and children are also victims of such this arbitrary form of power by the police and they make up 6% of the total number of victims. Many of these victims are so badly tortured and harassed that they die in police custody. The police however never claim responsibility and would makes up stories in order to wash the stain of guilt from their hands. A number of people who die due to torture are either claimed to have committed suicide or killed in encounters, which obviously is a sham.
One such case is that of Muhammad Faisal who died from police poisoning while the medico-legal staff claimed that his death was natural. This claim unfortunately did not match with that of the police who said that Faisal had overdosed himself with pills before he was arrested. This particular case clearly suggests that there exists some kind of alliance between the police and the medico-legal staff. One of the reasons for such alliances is the pressure exerted by the police on the medico-legal staff and the sad fact is that the medical reports of many victims have been altered in order to cover up the torture committed by the police.
Another case is that of Qasim, a 36 year old man from
Police also accused and arrested 5 civilians for the murder of two girls from Gadap who went missing in February 2004. However there are reports that the blame was falling on the Police Station Head Office of the area who used his connections to look after his position. Unofficially, the families of the two girls were paid Rs 10 lakhs each, to keep them quiet on the issue.
It is shocking to note how on a daily basis the laws that are meant to safeguard the interests and the integrity of the civilians are being used against them, by those who have the power to do so. Unfortunately, this trance of power makes them forget the responsibility that automatically comes along with it. To preserve the system, amendments need to be made to various laws furthermore, many new laws need to be introduced so that the rights of the people can be defended against all such forms of abuse.
- Creation of an Independent Tribunal consisting of Supreme Court, members of Parliament, Representatives of Human Rights organizations and a victim of torture.
- List of the missing peoples and victims of torture should be made public
- Government should constitute a Medical Board for torture victims provide medical treatments for their injuries, whether physical or mental.
- Compensation be paid to torture victims.
- Human Rights Committees at the level of Union Concils, having the power to check the FIRs of the local Police Stations. Members of the Human Rights Committee being authorised to visit places of detention and prison.
- Investigations of allegations of torture to be initiated promptly.
- The Convention against Torture to be ratified by the Government and the corresponding domestic law to be enacted.End.
Baseer Naveed
Senior Researcher,
Asian Human Rights Commission
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