Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Sindh President Haleem Adil Sheikh on Wednesday censured the arrest and alleged torture of party leaders and workers during their detention under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance (MPO), and demanded action against the police officials involved.
Speaking at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club, Sheikh said the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Sindh government has set “a new example of state oppression by illegally arresting PTI leaders and workers under the MPO”.
He said that 431 citizens were detained across Sindh, of whom 272 were released from the Central Jail Karachi and 159 from the Malir Jail, while over 100 other workers were freed from various police lock-ups.
He claimed that PTI Karachi President Raja Azhar and Senior Vice President Faheem Khan were stopped in Korangi and later subjected to brutal torture at the Awami police station. He also claimed that Korangi SSP Fida Janwari, DSP Khushnood, SHO Aamir, SHO Nasir and other officials were involved in the illegal detention and torture of PTI leaders, and demanded a transparent investigation and immediate registration of FIRs against those responsible.
He said that the medico-legal examinations of the party leaders has been completed, and stressed that if any sense of democratic ethics remains within the PPP, action must be taken against the officers without discrimination.
Sheikh said that it appears that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is competing with Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz to claim “a bigger award for oppression to prove that he too can surpass others in repression”.
He claimed that not even a flowerpot was damaged on February 8, nor was the strike enforced, yet PTI leaders and workers were brutally assaulted. He also claimed that workers were picked up from shops and hotels, while in some areas ordinary citizens were detained and later released after extorting money in “a blatant violation of law, and the worst form of fascism”.
He reiterated that the February 8 strike was “entirely peaceful, with no vandalism or coercion”, and that “the public voluntarily participated to register their verdict against the stolen mandate”.
Azhar said the Tehreek Tahaffuz-e-Aain Pakistan strike was “completely voluntary and peaceful, made successful by the public”. He said he had also spoken out against the “corruption of SSP Janwari, for which I am now being targeted”.
He claimed that he was tortured by police in Sohrab Goth. “On February 8, when there was neither any rally nor protest, I was travelling in my car when DSP Khushnood stopped me and said: ‘You have put my job at risk.’”
Soon after, he claimed, other officers arrived, forcibly put him into a police mobile and took him to the Awami police station, where he and other party members were humiliated. He also said that at the police station, plain-clothes personnel initially asked them to cooperate, but shortly afterwards, 30 to 40 individuals entered and brutally assaulted them in the presence of the SHO and the DSP.
He added that they were tortured for 30 to 40 minutes, blindfolded, which reminded him of the atrocities in Kashmir, after which their photographs were taken and they were shifted in a police van.
The PTI leadership reaffirmed that their struggle would continue until transparent investigations into the MPO arrests are conducted, FIRs are registered against the police officers involved in torture, justice is provided to the affected party members, and full protection of the constitutional and legal rights of political workers are ensured. Every legal avenue will be pursued to achieve these objectives, they stressed.
