LARKANA: A young man arrested on charges of stealing a motorcycle was found dead in the bathroom of lock-up at Lalurounk police station on Tuesday. Police claimed the suspect, Fateh Mohammad Channa, 25, had died by suicide while the victim’s relatives accused police of torturing him to death.

SHO Masroor Shah told journalists that Channa was arrested on charges of stealing a motorcycle and he was put behind the bars in the lockup. He was seen in the lockup till midday but was found missing by the evening when police searched him and found his body in the bathroom inside the lockup, he said.

He said the suspect fastened a rope round his neck to kill himself. He was immediately shifted to a hospital in Wagan town where doctors pronounced him dead, he said.

Mohammad Ali Channa, father of the victim, and his relatives accused police of implicating Fateh Mohammad in a trumped up case and then beating him to death in the lockup.

They demanded Larkana DIG and Qambar-Shahdadkot SSP order registration of a murder case against the SHO and ensure he was awarded exemplary punishment.

Meanwhile, a large number of the victim’s relatives gathered outside the police station after they learnt about the death of their loved one and demanded police hand them over the dead body.

The enraged relatives then carried the dead body to Indus Highway and staged a sit-in there in protest against police brutality. They demanded action against the police officials involved in the murder of their loved one.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2024