Court acquits police officers named in Salahuddin case

RAHIM YAR KHAN: A local court on Wednesday acquitted all the police officers named in the case of Salahuddin, a suspected ATM thief who died in police custody, after the deceased's mother appeared in the court and forgave the suspects for "the will of Allah".

Late Salahuddin's mother appeared at a hearing presided by Additional District and Session Judge Justice Zahid Hussain Bakhtiar, who, in the last one, had ordered her mother to appear in the court.

In her statement, Salahuddin's mother forgave the police officers. Consequently, the court — based on an agreement by the deceased's family to forgive — acquitted all suspects, including station house officer (SHO) Mahmoodul Hassan, Sub-Inspector (SI) Shafaat Ali, and Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Matloob Hussain.

In the last hearing, Salahuddin's father, Muhammad Afzal, had pardoned the police officials accused of torturing his son some two months after the death. He had announced the pardon at a mosque in Gujranwala and explained that he was doing so for Allah.

However, the court had refused to accept the letter forgiving the suspects and ordered his mother to appear in the court.

Back in August, late Salahuddin had gone viral a few days before his arrest after videos of him sticking out his tongue at closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed at an automated teller machine (ATM) surfaced on social media.

Salahuddin was then taken into custody from Rahim Yar Khan district of south Punjab and brought to the City A Division police station. He was reportedly suffering from an illness and, according to police, was rushed to a hospital when his condition deteriorated and he died.