LAHORE – A fact-finding commission has begun probe into the incident of brutal torture on a schoolteacher by a former lawmaker, which led to the abrupt transfer of the District Police Officer Sargodha, police sources revealed here on Saturday.
Sources said Inspector General of Police Punjab Habibur Rehman constituted the commission headed by Additional IG Nasir Durrani to investigate the incident to find out the truth.
The Punjab police chief also withheld the transfer orders of DPO Dr Rizwan, from Sargodha to Gilgit-Baltistan, and directed the police officer to continue his work till the inquiry commission submits its finings to the police headquarter.
Sources in the police further disclosed to this reporter that the IGP immediately intervened into the situation and ordered setting up of a high-level commission in order to find the truth behind the entire episode. The IGP also directed the fact-fining commission to submit its report within a weekly directly to the police headquarters Punjab. Then the report would be submitted to the Chief Minister.
Sources believed that the actual reason behind the DPO’s transfer was a police action against former MPA Aslam Midhyana, who along with his ten other accomplices had subjected 60-year-old schoolteacher, Nafees Khan Lodhi, to severe torture in the main bazaar of Midh Ranjha on Jan 19.
The legs of the schoolteacher also got fractured as the MAP and his brutally team assaulted him.
The Midh Ranjha police registered a case under different sections of the PPC and 7-ATA against Midhyana and his accomplices while six of the accused were arrested later. The local anti-terrorism court rejected the bail plea of Midhyana.
Meanwhile, a group of PPP MNAs and MPAs from Sargodha and Mandi Bahauddin districts met the Prime Minister and requested him to transfer the DPO to other province.
According to the sources, the lawmakers wanted to get the DPO punished because he flatly refused to accept the demand of the lawmakers that the former MPA Aslam Midhyana should be cleared of charges in a terrorism case.
On the Prime Minister’s advice, the federal government later transferred the DPO Sargodha, who was also holding the post of RPO, and placed his services at the disposal of Gilgit-Baltistan province. DPO Dr Rizwan received his transfer orders from the Establishment Division on March 7.
The 60-year-old schoolteacher, Nafees, appeared before the DPO in the open court and stated that the MPA was patronising gangsters and criminals.