HARIPUR: A head-constable of Haripur police, who was facing the charges of subjecting one of the family members of eight victims of gas pipeline blast in Hattar, was sent to prison on judicial remand here on Saturday.
The cop was arrested on Friday night when one of the family members of the gas pipeline blast victims accused him of subjecting him to severe physical torture.
The police quoted Ahmad Ali, 25, a resident of Kotnajibullah Maira near 400 quarters Labour Colony in the Hattar Industrial Estate, as saying that he was busy in his routine work on Thursday evening, selling fruit and vegetables on his pushcart near Hattar Road, when, at around 6 pm, he heard a blast near his home. The blast, he said, triggered heavy fire a few yards away in front of his house, trapping most of his family members inside.
He said that when he saw his family members unable to move out, and there was no ambulance or rescue workers to save them immediately, he started crying and rushed to Hattar Road. He said he staged a protest along with the area people against the authorities for the delayed response when he received a push from behind, falling on the Head Constable Yousaf. He said the cop reacted so violently that he and eight other policemen pounced at him and started beating him with sticks and belts mercilessly.
The medical reports, according to police and hospital sources, have confirmed physical torture, which led to the registration of a criminal case against Muhammad Yousaf and eight others under sections 337-A (ii), 148, and 149 PPC.
