Police torture victim records statement

PESHAWAR: The victim of police torture, Rafiullah Khan alias Aamir Tehkali, appeared before a local court and recorded his statement here on Wednesday.

Aamir Tehkali was produced before the court of judicial magistrate Farooq Shah amid tight security and he remained there for about three hours. In his statement, he accused SHOs of Tehkal Police Station and Agha Mir Jani Shah Police Station and 11 constables of violence and humiliation. He said that SHO Tehkal Police Station Shehryar and SHO Agha Mir Jani Police Station Imran-ud-Din subjected him to violence and made his video. He told the court that he could recognise other police officials who were involved in his humiliation if they were brought before him. A resident of Tehkal, Peshawar, Rafiullah alias Aamir Tehkali was arrested, beaten and then humiliated by local police after he had used abusive language against police officers in a video he had released on social media. The local police then made a video of him in which Aamir Tehkali was shown naked and was forced to apologise for his remarks against police officials.

The video had gone viral on the social media and had triggered protest demonstrations at large scale against police. While taking notice of the video, Inspector General of Police Khyber Pakhtunkhwa suspended the accused police officials. On the directives of Peshawar High Court, a judicial commission was constituted to probe the matter and present its report to the court. Meanwhile, Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth nominated registrar and spokesperson for the judicial commission to probe the torture incident.