Drosh police accused of torturing poor man

DROSH, July 17: A police official of Drosh police station allegedly harassed and beat up a poor taxi driver over a petty issue and put him behind bars here on Tuesday. The victim of police highhandedness told chitraltoday.net that he had parked his taxi along the roadside under the shade of a tree and was waiting for passengers when the police man in civilian clothes pulled up in his vehicle and asked him to remove the taxi as he wanted to park his car in the shade. When the taxi driver hesitated, the police man beat him up in front of onlookers. Later, the police man went to the police station and summoned the poor man there. When the taxi driver reached the police station, the accused again started beating him in front of the station house officer (SHO), who did not intervene. The police highhandedness did not stop here. The Drosh police registered a case against the taxi driver under section 279 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) which is about over-speeding and impounded the taxi in the police station. The taxi driver has appealed to the authorities concerned and human rights organizations to take notice of the matter in order to check the police highhandedness. When chitraltoday.net contacted the Drosh police, an official in the police station rejected the taxi driver’s allegation that he was beaten. He said common people and policemen in Chitral know each other and they live together like brothers. But is has become a fashion for people to hurl all types of allegations against the police, he said. The official added that a case under section 279 was registered against the driver for negligence/wrong parking. “He might have taken this as an insult and approached the media with the accusation against the police,” the official said, adding the arrested man had now been taken to the court.]]>