RAHIM YAR KHAN: A murder case has been registered against the station house of ficer (SHO) and two investigating officers of the City A-Division Police Station on charge of murder of Salahuddin Ayubi who, his family claimed, was mentally challenged.

The police officers who were accused of killing Ayubi during interrogation were identified as SHO Mahmoodul Hassan and invesugadon ofhcers SubInspector Shaf aat Ali and Assistant Sub-Inspector Matloob Hussain.

Ayubi was arrested on Friday in Rahim Yar Khan af ter some people got hold of him in an ATM machine.

Earlier, his video from Faisalabad had gone viral on the social mediain which he was seen making faces and sticking out his tongue at the CCTV camera before breaking the ATM machine and getting a card out of it. In the clip, he was not seen taking away any money from the machine.

On Sunday, he had reportedly died during interrogation in police custody. Ayubi belonged to the town of Kamoke of Gujranwala.

His father, Muhammad Afzaal, filed an application on Monday with the superintendent of police (investigations), saying his son, Ayubi, was a mentally challenged person and he had tattooed his name and address on his arm for identincation in case he got lost.

He said on Sept 1, 2019, he came to know that his son had died in custody of City A-Division PoliceStation of Rahim Yar Khan and he contacted the police station to get information but in vain. He came to Rahim Yar Khan with his two nephews, Muhammad Nawaz and Haroon Imtiaz. He was told that the police had arrested Salahuddin in a theft case and SHO Mehmoodul Hassan, SubInspector Shafaat Ali and ASI Matloob Hussain had tortured his son to death during interrogation.

Later, the police had sent his body for post-mortem without informing him.

On this application, City A-Division police registered a first information report under various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Talking to journalists, Mr Afzaal said his deceased son was arrested thrice in the past and was sent tojails in Rawalpindi and Faisalabad but he was always released due to his mental condition. He alleged that the police had killed Salahuddin unjustly and he would do everything to get justice.

Usama Khawar Ghuman, the counsel for Afzaal, expressed hope that the police officials responsible for Salahuddin Ayub`s killing would be arrested immediately.

Sheikh Zayed Medical College Hospital spokesperson Rana Ilyas Ahmed told Dawn the samples of the deceased`s body parts had been sent to the Punjab Forensic Science Agency in Lahore and the postmortem report would be finalised af ter a month.

According to our Gujranwala correspondent, Ayubi was laid to rest in his native area near Wahndo on Monday.