This report on Pakistani police's brutality shows the kind of torture accused, and many innocent people, are subjected to. The oldest victim of Punjab police's brutality according to this report was a 90-y-o man.This, and several other damning facts in this video:
- Police brutality and torture are widespread in Pakistan,
- A recent report compiled by Justice Project Pakistan (JPP),
- by looking at Medico-Legal Certificates between 1998 and 2012,
- in Faisalabad and Lahore
- answer these 9 crucial questions:
- Q. The most common form of torture?
- Severe beating; including danda, slapping, kicking and punching
- Q. How else does the police torture civilians?
- Penetrative sexual violence, sleep deprivation, stretching, suspension,
- solitary confinement, crushing, is that enough, or shall we keep going?
- Q. Who are the youngest and oldest people to be tortured?
- A 12-year-old boy and a 90-year-old man were once tortured,
- i.e. the police don’t discriminate based on age
- Q. Do they discriminate based on class?
- Yes. Daily wage workers, domestic workers and farmers
- are far more likely to be tortured than people with money
- Q. And what about gender discrimination?
- Yes. Men at 92%, are far more likely to be tortured than women
- When women are tortured, 83 per cent face severe beating
- and 61 per cent face sexual violence
- Q. Is it easy to report to higher authorities that police tortured you?
- No. For a Medico-Legal Certificate to be made,
- torture must be reported to a judicial forum
- This has to be done before your injuries heal!
- Q. Are cases of police torture underreported?
- YES! The report believes they are grossly underreported
- Q. Do people misuse the judicial forum by lying that they were tortured
- Rarely. Over 76 per cent of cases that reached the forum,
- came with evidence of injuries indicating torture
- Q. Where is this torture taking place?
- Mostly at police stations, but occasionally
- also at victim’s homes and public places