After days-long social media campaign, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has written a letter to the Lahore High Court’s chief justice to constitute a judicial commission to investigate suspect Salahuddin Ayubi’s death, his spokesperson confirmed. Salahuddin’s parents have demanded judicial inquiry under the supervision of the LHC serving judge.
The spokesperson, Dr. Shahbaz Gill, said the Punjab CM had requested the LHC to constitute a judicial commission to “judicially probe the tragic incident of Salahuddin Ayubi”, a mentally disabled man who was arrested in Rahim Yar Khan and allegedly died while in police custody.
وزیر اعلیٰ پنجاب نے رحیم یار خان میں پولیس حراست میں مبینہ طور پر جاں بحق ہونے والے صلاح الدین کے افسوسناک واقعہ کی عدالتی تحقیقات کے لئے عدالتی کمیشن مقرر کرنے کے لئے چیف جسٹس لاہور ہائی کورٹ کو خط لکھا ہے۔
— Dr. Shahbaz GiLL (@SHABAZGIL) September 5, 2019
On the other hand, District and Session Judge Rahim Yar Khan has appointed senior civil judge Sheikh Fayaz as judicial inquiry officer to investigate the death of Salahuddin. Sources said notices have been issued to police officers, SHO, investigation officer and father of Salahuddin in this regard. Hearing on judicial inquiry would be held on September 7.
Moreover, CM removed DPO Rahim Yar Khan from his post and instructed him to report to the central police office.
Police’s version got challenged after the family shared pictures of Salahudin’s dead body. Police have apparently beaten him to death
Separately, earlier today, a first information report (FIR) was registered against the police officers involved in the incident, provincial authorities said, adding that all three were suspended.
The provincial government said it was waiting for the postmortem report to be released to determine the authenticity of the charges against the police officers and will proceed forward accordingly.
Background of the Case
According to details, a resident of Gujrat’s Kamonkey district, Salahuddin was arrested from Rahim Yar Khan from an ATM booth after attempting another robbery. Police reported that upon his arrest Salahuddin had presented himself as being speech impaired but that claim was disproved later.
Now all efforts are being made to silence the family and divert the public attention. However, social media has become unmanageable for the Punjab police.
Read more: Salahuddin’s death in police custody exposes ugly face of Punjab police
Initially, some reports claimed that Salahuddin had been suffering from a health ailment earlier and is believed to have died from a heart attack. He was rushed to the hospital after his illness worsened. An inquiry into the cause of his death has been ordered by the District Police Officer.
However, the police’s version got challenged after the family shared pictures of Salahudin’s dead body. Police have apparently beaten him to death. Human rights activist Jibran Nasir said that “while Police claims #Salahuddin died due to cardiac arrest and is quoting a senior doctor as saying there were no torture marks without sharing the actual report the pictures taken by Salahuddin’s family of his body before burial are harrowing.”
While Police claims #Salahuddin died due to cardiac arrest and is quoting a senior doctor as saying there were no torture marks without sharing the actual report the pictures taken by Salahuddin's family of his body before burial are harrowing. pic.twitter.com/OpHjAopAOe
— M. Jibran Nasir 🇵🇸 (@MJibranNasir) September 3, 2019
The politicization of police still continues to be the most challenging issue in the province. The PTI promised before coming into power to reform police and make it a model institution. But after assuming the offices, the party has failed to introduce any change which might have impacted the performance of the police across the province. It has disappointed many of PTI’s supporters who were expecting to live in Naya Pakistan.