Excise team accused of thrashing widow to death | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Excise team accused of thrashing widow to death

LAHORE: A team of the Punjab Excise and Taxation department allegedly tortured a middle-age widow to death during a raid at her house in Baghbanpura on Saturday. The team conducted the raid without informing the local police.

Kausar Din alias Rani, 50, wife of the late Mirajdin, was at her Lakhu Dehar house when the excise team stormed the place on the information that narcotics had been kept there, manhandled her and smashed her head against a wall. The treatment left the woman unconscious and she was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Baghbanpura Station House Officer Mubashir Ahmed said an excise inspector, Muhammad Rafique, reached the house of Kausar Bibi along with his eight men from Fareed Kot House on information that narcotics had been kept at the place.

He quoted Naseem Hyder, the only son of Kausar, as saying that the excise officials pushed his mother to the wall when she objected to the search of her house, causing her instant death. He said all nine officials were in the police station.

The excise officials claimed the woman could not survive shock when they raided the house to recover narcotics.

According to the SHO, the excise team did not inform the police before the raid.SSP (Operations) Chaudhry Shafiq Ahmed told Dawn that the excise team recovered some quantity of heroin and hash from the house and apparently manhandled the woman. The postmortem report would determine the exact cause of her death, he added.

He said a case would be registered against the excise team on the complaint of the deceasedÂ’s son.
Source: Dawn
Date:10/4/2009