Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr Usman Anwar has rejected allegations leveled by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) that the provincial authorities were responsible for the death of party worker Ali Bilal, and said the worker did not die in police custody, and the incident was a road accident case
On Wednesday, the PTI had decided to kick off its election campaign with a rally from Zaman Park to Data Darbar. The rally was later dedicated to the judiciary.
Shortly after, the Punjab government imposed section 144 in Lahore, banning all demonstrations and rallies. Police officials had also taken a number of PTI workers into custody for violating the ban and used water cannons in an effort to disperse them which had led the PTI chairman to call off the rally.
Following this, the PTI called off the rally and claimed that a party worker had died due to police torture.
The deceased, identified as Ali Bilal alias Zil-e-Shah, was intellectually challenged.
The postmortem report of the worker has confirmed that he was brutally tortured. According to the report, as many as 26 different marks of torture were found on the victim’s body, including on sensitive parts, while a part of his skull was badly affected.
In today’s press conference, the Punjab IGP along with caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi denied the involvement of the provincial administration in the incident.
The Punjab IGP said the victim died due to a car accident, while adding that the owner of the car had been identified as Raja Shakeel, who is vice president of the PTI in Central Punjab. He said he had no intention of killing the worker.
He further claimed that the PTI was aware of the incident but they still tried to pin the blame on provincial authorities.
Meanwhile, the caretaker CM stated that he would have addressed the allegations differently if he was not in the coveted position and that it was his “responsibility to bear such attacks with restrain”, but the PTI’s move to file a first information report with murder charges on the basis of assumptions was “too much”.
“I will not surrender. I would prefer going home but will not give up,” the minister said.
