[Reader-list] PAKISTAN Air Force is running a torture cell

[Pawan Durani]

http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2010statements/2535/

PAKISTAN: The Air Force is running a torture cell at its Air
Headquarters where six members of a Christian family were tortured, a
girl lost her legs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AHRC-STM-074-2010
May 10, 2010

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission

PAKISTAN: The Air Force is running a torture cell at its Air
Headquarters where six members of a Christian family were tortured, a
girl lost her legs

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received a report of the
torture of six persons from a Christian family by officials of the
Pakistan Air Force. The arrest and torture continued for a period of
18 days and was due to the suspicion that they had stolen gold
ornaments from the house of a Wing Commander in the Pakistan Air Force
(PAF). A 14 year-old girl and her 16 year-old brother were tortured by
the Wing Commander himself. As a result the girl is now disabled and
neither she nor her brother is able to walk properly. A Session Court
has helped obtain the victims’ release but has not initiated any
judicial process against the officials of the PAF even after finding
evidence that the family was tortured and being detained illegally in
the PAF torture cell.

According to the information received from several sources, including
Miss Jamila Aslam, the lawyer of the victims, the Ephlal Ministry (a
Christian NGO), and the family members of the victims, the 14 year-old
Miss Sumera Masih was serving as a maid in the house of Mr. Faheem
Cheema, a Wing Commander in the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) in Islamabad.
Her job duties ranged from babysitting to cleaning, and she worked
from 8 a.m. in the morning until 9 p.m. at night. Around 8:30 p.m. on
the night of March 30, 2010, she was asked by the wife of the Wing
Commander to take early leave as their family would go out for dinner;
however, after 9.00 p.m. Sumera was asked to go to her employer’s
house because some gold ornaments and other valuable items were
missing. She was beaten and threatened by the wife of the Wing
Commander that if she did not return the stolen items, she and her
family would be handed over to the police. After 10.00 pm she was
allowed to return to the servant quarters inside the PAF colony. In
the meantime the Wing Commander reported the theft of the gold
ornaments and the other valuable items to the Margala police station
in Islamabad by telephone without naming any suspects.

Later then, the Wing Commander allegedly directed the PAF police to
detain Sumera and her family without informing the local police
station. At 1.00 a.m. a van from the PAF police came; three persons
exited and went into the servant quarters. They took Sumera and her
father, Mr. Pervez Masih, to the PAF police station at the PAF Air
Headquarters, sector E-9, Islamabad Chaklala, Shaheen Chowk. Two hours
after the arrest at 3.00a.m., the PAF police returned to the house and
took Perveen Bibi and Miss Sana, Sumera's mother and 20 year-old
sister, into custody and drove away. 40 minutes after this, the same
PAF police officials came and took her 16 year-old brother, Mr. Imran
Masih, with them. On April 7 her paternal uncle Kala Masih was also
arrested by the PAF police while he was searching for the family.

The mother and her elder sisters were released after two days of being
severely tortured in illegal detention with the warning, by Wing
Commander himself, that if they informed anybody of these arrests they
would not be released and would be punished heavily. According to her
lawyer, the wing commander regularly visited the victims’ house to
beat and torture the mother and sister to make them confess that they
had stolen the ornaments.

In the meantime, Parveen Bibi filed an application before the
Islamabad Superintendent of Police (SP) with the help of her brother
who was living in another city. The SP had tried to investigate the
case and directed the Federal Investigation Unit (FIU) to probe the
matter of the theft of the gold ornaments. The girl and her family
members were interrogated by the FIU, but according to the lawyer,
they were not tortured by the FIU.

The SP also sent the case for legal process to a judicial magistrate
in Islamabad, but he refused to take the case as PAF and armed forces
were involved.

The lawyers, Miss Jamila Aslam and Miss Shamona Javed, have filed a
case based upon the illegal suspension of the writ of habeas corpus on
April 13 before the District and Session court judge, Mr. Mazhar
Hussain Barlas. He immediately fixed the date for regular hearing and
called the public prosecutor the next day for comments. The day after
this, the court ordered all the arrested persons be produced before
the court. Sumera’s father, Pervez Masih, and his cousin, Kala Masih,
were produced before the court, but Sumera and her brother Imran Masih
were not produced. The judge ordered that her father and uncle be
released immediately but also asked the PAF police to produce Sumera
and her younger brother on April 17.

On April 17 though, Sumera was not produced before the court. Station
House Officer Mumtaz Sheikh told to the court that Sumera’s health
prohibited her to come to the court. She was admitted to the PAF
Hospital purportedly suffering from a viral infection. But the lawyer
informed the court that Sumera had been severely tortured and could
not walk, and furthermore that the PAF police were purposely avoiding
producing her before the court. The court then ordered that she must
be produced within two hours or a FIR would be lodged against the PAF
police and the wing commander. In the afternoon Sumera was produced
before the court; she was not able to walk and her father had to carry
her in his arms. She was not even able to sit. She had been pressured
and threatened by the PAF officials to say that she had a throat
infection but the judge then asked why she was unable to walk if that
was the case.

After assurance from the judge and lawyers, the 14 year-old maid told
the court that every day she was tortured by the wing commander and
PAF police officials at a torture cell. Whenever PAF officials were
conducting torture, they would blindfold her and beat her about the
back and spinal cord. When Wing Commander Cheema entered the room, he
saw that she was not blindfolded and threw a glass plate at her head;
after which she fainted. She said she did not know for how many hours
she was unconscious but woke up to find herself at the PAF hospital.
The judge ordered proper medical treatment for her at the PAF’s
expense, but they have yet to make any such payment or provide
treatment.

Furthermore, the PAF officials did not produce her younger brother
Imran to the court, but on the strong reaction from the Session judge,
PAF police released him the next day on April 18; but released him in
such a way as to not make it seem as if he was in PAF custody. Imran
Masih recorded in his testimony before the session court that the PAF
police had hired him a taxi to bring him to Iqbal town in Islamabad;
they had also planted a railway return ticket from Faisalabad, about
600 kilometers away, to make it seem as if he was coming from
Faisalabad. When the taxi driver dropped him at Iqbal Town in
Islamabad, the police were waiting for him; they arrested and produced
him before the court. When the court asked of his whereabouts during
past 18 days, he told the court that he was coming by railway. But the
court was not satisfied by his answer as he was carried in by two
police officers and could not walk properly. The court assured him to
tell truth and that he was well protected. He then told the court that
he was kept in a house at PAF Air Headquarters where officials of the
PAF police and the Wing Commander Cheema tortured him to confess that
his family and sister had stolen the gold ornaments from the house of
the Wing Commander. He said that he was hung from a tree in the heat
under the sun and was beaten severely at the back and legs. It was
because of this that he was not able to walk. He said on the morning
of April 18th that he was put in a taxi by PAF police officials with a
return railway ticket from Faisalabad and was told that he should tell
the court that he was in Faisalabad. He was told that if he said that
he was at PAF Headquarters, his sister and other family members would
not be released. The court then ordered for his release and asked the
Margalla police to provide protection to the family because of this
information.

At this moment the court asked the lawyers and the victim's family
whether to take legal action against the PAF police and the other
officials for illegally detaining and torturing the family. The
victims, after consulting with their lawyers, told the court that they
are very poor and are Christians so they could not fight with such a
powerful group as the armed forces. The court set aside the cases of
habeas corpus as all the members of the family were recovered and did
not take any action against the perpetrators.

During the court proceedings, Dr. Nusrat Saleem of the PAF hospital
said in her statement when the judge asked why Sumera was not brought
on the court orders was because of injuries sustained during torture,
She continued to say that Sumera is barely able to walk and might not
be able to walk for the rest of her life.

The victims are now hiding in another city because of continuous
threats from Wing Commander Faheem Cheema and other officials of the
Pakistan Air Force for revealing the torture cell at the PAF Air
Headquarters.

The running of torture cells at PAF Air Headquarters shows that armed
forces are running their own parallel extrajudicial investigation
systems. The Asian Human Rights Commission had already documented that
the Pakistan army is running 52 torture cells all over the country,
please see the following link:
http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2008statements/1574/.

This case of torture by the members of the Pakistan armed forces is
ample proof that courts are still under the influence of the armed
forces and are unable to implement the law equally.
The Christian organisations assert that the worst kind of torture is
reserved for them because of their religion and the fact that they are
very poor. The Session court judge Mr. Barlas saved the lives of the
family by taking prompt action to protect them from the PAF torture,
but he should have taken action against the PAF and the Wing
Commander, as it is his legal obligation, despite the fact that the
victims did not want to pursue their own legal remedy.

It is a matter of deep concern, as to the legal procedures adopted by
the judiciary, that when it was proved beyond any doubt that the Wing
Commander Faheem Cheema and the PAF police officials conducted torture
causing the two children to suffer severe injuries the Judge avoided
taking any legal action against them. It is observed that in cases
involving the armed forces the judiciary, including the Supreme Court,
avoids taking legal action against the armed forces. It is because of
this that the armed forces have rendered themselves above the law. In
the cases of disappearances the family members of the victims’ have
provided all the evidence of involvement of state intelligence
agencies, including the Supreme Court, but the courts have never asked
the officials of the armed forces to testify before the court.

The Judicial Magistrate of Islamabad has refused to take cases
involving the armed forces even when the SP of Islamabad has forwarded
him the application from the mother of Sumera for legal process. The
rule of law then cannot be guaranteed when the judiciary itself
refuses to take cases against the armed forces providing them with
blanket impunity to torture and illegally detain people like Sumera
and her family.

The torture case of Sumera, her brother, and their parents in the PAF
Air Headquarters shows the total collapse of rule of the law where
many military and paramilitary organizations are running their illegal
detention centers and conducting torture. The judiciary also claims
that it is independent, but the armed forces are kept out of their
domain as if the judiciary does not involve itself in the
supra-constitutional affairs of the armed forces. The same situation
is seen in the media. They do not cover the atrocities of the armed
forces because media houses know their power. In the case of Sumera,
the media, particularly the electronic media, blacked out the court
proceedings.

The Asian Human Rights Commission urges upon the President and Prime
Minister to conduct an enquiry against the PAF officials for running
torture cells in its air headquarters where the people are kept
illegally and tortured. The government should also prosecute the Wing
Commander Faheem Cheema and the PAF police officials for the illegal
detention and the torture of the six members of a Christian family
through which the whole family was in a state of trauma. In addition
to this, a girl of 14 years has lost the use of her legs for life and
a boy of 16 years is no longer able to walk properly.

The government should also follow its own pledge, made before the UN
Human Rights Council in 2008 before becoming its member, that it will
make the law according to the UN Convention Against Torture (CAT). It
is shameful then to think that the government cannot protect religious
minorities from more powerful groups, particularly from the members of
the armed forces.

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About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional
non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights
issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.