March 9, 2023
LAHORE
Police have not yet registered a case on the complaint of the father of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf worker Ali Bilal who allegedly died of police torture during the clashes on Wednesday, between party workers and police in the city.
A two-member police team was formed to investigate PTI worker Ali Bilal’s death after PTI claimed he died of custodial torture.
Speaking with Voicepk.net on Thursday, Hassaan Niazi, counsel for Ali Bilal’s father, said they had submitted a complaint with the Race Course Police Station on Wednesday night for registration of a case in the custodial death.
However, the police have not registered the case in which Ali Bilal’s father nominated police officials including the Lahore police chief for torturing his son to death on the insistence of the caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi and Federal Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah.
Niazi said police have not even shared the post-mortem report with Ali Bilal’s family. He said the family members were occupied with Ali Bilal’s funeral and they would probably think of approaching the courts for registration of a case on Friday.
Three days for report submission
In a notification on March 8, the Punjab Inspector General of Police constituted a high-level committee comprising Punjab Elite Police Force Deputy Inspector General Sadiq Ali and Lahore Capital City District Internal Accountability Bureau Senior Superintendent of Police Imran Kishwar to investigate the alleged custodial death. The committee is to submit its report within three days.
The committee was tasked with investigating questions relating to Ali Bilal’s death. The team will investigate the circumstances that led to Ali Bilal’s death and whether he was in police custody “as reported on social media”.
Caretaker Information Minister Amir Mir told Voicepk.net that an inquiry committee had been formed to probe the PTI worker’s death.
Meanwhile, Lahore police has lodged a case against PTI chief Imran Khan and other party leaders for instigating the clashes that left 13 police officials and several PTI workers injured after the caretaker Punjab government imposed Section 144 to block the PTI pre-election rally.
In the first information report registered in Race Course police station, complainant Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Sabir Ali of the police station claimed Bilal’s death occurred when a mob of PTI workers attacked police personnel with stones and sticks.
He said PTI chief Imran Khan and leaders Farukh Habib, Fawad Chaudhary, Mehmoodur Rasheed, and others exhorted workers to attack police personnel, adding that the party workers started throwing stones at the police contingent. He said when they rushed injured police officials to Services Hospital for treatment, some injured PTI workers were also found admitted there. One of the PTI workers identified as Ali Bilal had died at the hospital, he added.
PTI leader Fawad Chaudhary claimed that instead of lodging a custodial death case the police charged PTI chief Imran Khan and other leaders with the murder of party worker Ali Bilal. “The police have registered the case of Ali Bilal’s martyrdom against the leadership of PTI. A case of Section 302 (under Pakistan Penal Code) was filed against Imran Khan and other leaders,” he tweeted.
