Class 7th student dies mysteriously in Peshawar police custody
- 15 Mar 2021
Tariq Butt, Correspondent
A grade-7 student has been found dead in the lock-up of the West Cantonment Police Station of Peshawar, which caused a storm. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan immediately ordered a judicial inquiry and said the culprits would go unpunished.
The incident took place a few days after a student from Bannu was shot dead by the cops in the limits of the Faqirabad police station.
The staff of the West Cantonment Police Station was suspended after the tragic incident while the concerned cops, including the station house officer, have been arrested and a case lodged against them.
The chief minister and Governor Shah Farman, while taking notice of the incident, directed the Inspector General of Police to conduct an inquiry and submit a report on the death of the young student. They expressed anger as to what made the student commit suicide in the lock-up if the police version is true.
The police registered an FIR against him and later he committed suicide inside the lockup, the statement added.
"The boy later committed suicide in the lock-up by strangulating himself," said the official. The father of the deceased, however, said his son was tortured to death but the cops staged the drama that he committed suicide.
"My son was a brilliant student of class 7 who stood second in class in the last exams. I received a call from the police station that your son has been arrested. When I came to the police station, I was told Shahzeb had committed suicide in the lock-up," said the father of the deceased student, Khayal Akbar of Warsak Road in Peshawar.
He was visibly shaken after the tragic death of his young son in police custody. His relatives and villagers staged a demonstration and blocked the road outside the West Cantonment Police Stations to protest the death of the young student.
They were demanding justice for the family as well as strict action against all those involved in the torture on the deceased student. The protesters calmed down only after they saw the station house officer (SHO) and other cops behind the bars.
On Sunday night, a large number of people and relatives of the victim staged a protest demonstration outside the Gharbi police station and chanted slogans against the police highhandedness and misuse of power.
This is the second such incident in Peshawar in recent days, Dawn news said. A few days ago, two policemen were arrested for killing a male student after the latter did not stop on their signalling.
In 2019, four incidents of custodial deaths had occurred in police lockups.