Concern over non-arrest of guilty CAA officials

Concern over non-arrest of guilty CAA officials

ISLAMABAD, Oct 31: The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has expressed concern over non-arrest of officials of the Civil Aviation Authority who ruthlessly tortured and inflected more than 31 injurers on various parts of the body of Din TV channel’s Faisal Shoukat Ali Rajput and demanded immediate action against all those involved in torture case.

Fasial Shoukat Ali Rajput, who is in the journalism profession for over 15 years is presently working as a Bureau Chief of Din TV Channel Karachi. He went to the Karachi Airport to cover a spot coverage of fire incident that occurred at the VIP Lounge on Oct. 9 evening.

According to the media persons who were also present there the media teams were prevented by the officials of the CAA to enter the VIP Lounge to shoot the “fire” footage, on the pretext that the “area was sensitive and cannot be allowed to be shown on TV screens”.

However, Faisal insisted on coverage of the fire and somehow got prepared footage of the fire. Upon this, about half a dozen officials of the CAA severely thrashed him and took him to an unknown destination.

He was kept in “illegal conferment for more than 20 hours” where he was severely tortured with iron rod, wooden sticks and inflicted more than 24 injures on various parts of the body.

Besides, this he was forcibly given hot water with chilies to drink to cause further damage to his body. After 20 hours long torture, Faisal was thrown at a deserted area of Gulistan-i-Johar on Oct 20.

A compliant was lodged against those responsible with the Airport Police who registered a case under section 342/504/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code. However, despite passage of more than 20 days, no accused involved in this serious crime had been brought to justice.

Moreover, the relevant sections of the PPC 365, etc were not added in the FIR with a malafide intention to provide an opportunity to the accused to flee from the process of law as per gravity of the offences committed by them.

Terming this incident horrible and tragic, the PFUJ said it was very unfortunate that those involved in such barbaric crime had not been booked. Such leniency and indifferent attitude on the part of the law enforcers is encouraging trend of disrespect for law as well as undermining the rule of law in society, the PFUJ argued.

The PFUJ said that law does not allow any one to take law into his own hand and to punish human if any one prima-facie commits any mistake. In any case, if CAA rules prohibit making any coverage and footage of “prohibited area” the law should take its own course but not to punish the violators by their own judgment and by inflicting injuries, the PFUJ contended.

Castigating, the indifferent attitude of the concerned police officials, the PFUJ demanded immediate arrest of all those involved in the kidnapping, torturing and injuries to Faisal Rajput and be tried in consonance with law.

Shamsul Islam Naz

Secretary General
PAKISTAN FEDERAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS
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