Paan vendor dies due to ‘police torture’

A paan vendor was allegedly tortured to death by the police in the Ahsanabad area on Saturday after he refused to pay extortion money to them.

Four cops allegedly involved in the torture were arrested and a case registered against them.

The deceased, 55-year-old Jan Muhammad, son of Sawan Khan, used to run a paan shop in Maula Buksh Goth near the Super Highway, within the limits of the Site Superhighway police station.

According to witness accounts, some policemen of the Site Superhighway police station came to his shop and demanded extortion money from him in exchange for allowing him to sell Gutka and started beating him up when he refused to pay them.

He was critically injured by the cops and was taken to Abbassi Shaheed Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries during treatment. Following the incident, a large number of people held a protest against Jan Muhammad’s death and shouted slogans against the police. The protesters claimed that the policemen frequently extorted money from paan vendors after threatening to torture them or register false cases against them.

The protesters also demanded immediate arrests of the policemen responsible for the paan vendor’s death. Following the protest, District Malir SSP Irfan Bahadur took notice of the incident and ordered the SHO concerned to book and arrest the policemen allegedly involved in the incident.

The arrested cops included ASI Ghulam Ali Chandio, Head Constable Qarar Hussain, Hassan and Constable Asif Ali. The case against them was registered on a complaint of Jan Muhammad’s family. Further investigations are under way.