{"id":12066,"date":"2026-03-16T19:15:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T19:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hrnww.com\/?p=12066"},"modified":"2026-03-16T19:15:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T19:15:45","slug":"shc-constitutional-bench-orders-inquiry-into-custodial-death-of-youth-in-alleged-encounter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hrnww.com\/?p=12066","title":{"rendered":"SHC Constitutional Bench Orders Inquiry Into Custodial Death of Youth in Alleged Encounter"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"model-response-message-contentr_0e1588a6c0997afe\" class=\"markdown markdown-main-panel enable-updated-hr-color\" dir=\"ltr\" aria-live=\"polite\" aria-busy=\"false\">\n<p data-path-to-node=\"1\"><b data-path-to-node=\"1\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">KARACHI (HRNW):<\/b> The Constitutional Bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) has ordered a high-level inquiry into the alleged custodial killing of a young man, Hamdan, and two others during a police encounter in Shah Latif Town. The court expressed grave concerns over the security of individuals in police custody, remarking, &#8220;If people continue to be killed in custody like this, lives will be lost every day.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"2\">During the hearing, DIG Special Branch and other senior officials appeared before the bench. The court directed the DIG Special Branch to complete a transparent inquiry into the incident within one month. Furthermore, the court explicitly ordered that the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) officials involved in the alleged encounter must not be given any active postings until the investigation is concluded.<\/p>\n<h3 data-path-to-node=\"3\"><b data-path-to-node=\"3\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">Strict Directives to IG Sindh<\/b><\/h3>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"4\">The court issued several key directives to ensure the safety of suspects under legal supervision:<\/p>\n<ul data-path-to-node=\"5\">\n<li>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5,0,0\"><b data-path-to-node=\"5,0,0\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs):<\/b> IG Sindh has been ordered to develop comprehensive SOPs for the security of suspects in high-profile cases during both police and judicial custody.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5,1,0\"><b data-path-to-node=\"5,1,0\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">Transparent Reporting:<\/b> The inquiry must determine whether the deceased were actually killed by firing from their own accomplices, as claimed by the police, or if the encounter was staged.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5,2,0\"><b data-path-to-node=\"5,2,0\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">Family Access:<\/b> Once completed, copies of the inquiry report must be provided to the bereaved families.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 data-path-to-node=\"6\"><b data-path-to-node=\"6\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">Background of the Case<\/b><\/h3>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"7\">Advocate Jibran Nasir, representing the petitioner, informed the court that Hamdan had been missing since December 29. After a missing person&#8217;s case was filed, the police eventually declared his arrest. On February 19, an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) granted physical remand of Hamdan to the police. However, on February 17\u2014while still in custody\u2014Hamdan and two others were killed in what the lawyer termed a &#8220;fake encounter.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"8\">The counsel argued that the police themselves admitted the suspects were handcuffed and in custody at the time of the alleged shootout. He further noted that the post-mortem report contradicts the police version of events and highlighted that, despite the <b data-path-to-node=\"8\" data-index-in-node=\"256\">Torture and Custodial Death Act<\/b>, no departmental action or mandatory seven-day inquiry had been initiated prior to this court intervention.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"9\">The court disposed of the petition after issuing these directions for a formal probe.<\/p>\n<hr data-path-to-node=\"10\" \/>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"11\"><b data-path-to-node=\"11\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">Support Independent Journalism:<\/b> At HRNW, we remain a vigilant voice against custodial injustice and for the protection of human rights. Your support helps us continue reporting on judicial accountability. Support our mission at <a class=\"ng-star-inserted\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=https:\/\/hrnw.com\/support-us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-hveid=\"0\" data-ved=\"0CAAQ_4QMahgKEwjD5Jb-hqWTAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQugM\">hrnw.com\/support-us<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"12\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KARACHI (HRNW): The Constitutional Bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) has ordered a high-level inquiry into the alleged custodial killing of a young man, Hamdan, and two others during a police encounter in Shah Latif Town. The court expressed grave concerns over the security of individuals in police custody, remarking, &#8220;If people continue to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-court-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hrnww.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hrnww.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hrnww.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hrnww.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hrnww.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hrnww.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12067,"href":"https:\/\/www.hrnww.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12066\/revisions\/12067"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hrnww.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hrnww.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hrnww.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hrnww.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}