Web Desk (LTN NEWS): During the raid, a cell phone, a satellite phone, and some USBs were found in Gill’s room. Late Monday night, the Capital police searched the room of imprisoned PTI leader Shahbaz Gill in the Parliament Lodges. They found a pistol, a satellite phone, and foreign currency.
The raid was led by a senior superintendent of police (SSP), and Gill went with them while he was in handcuffs. During the operation, a pistol was found, but Gill refused to take it.
Also found were a cell phone, a satellite phone, and USBs. Also, his wallet, which had been lost, was found, and inside it were two of his CNICs. Two passports were also seized.
Gill told the reporters that he didn’t know how his wallet got into the room because he had left it in the car when he was arrested.
“My driver carried my wallet most of the time, and the room where the gun was found was used by my guards,” he said.
Replying to questions by the journalists, Gill confirmed PTI chief Imran Khan’s claim of being sexually assaulted in police custody. “Yes, I was sexually abused,” he said in response to a question.
“I see some changes in my room, my passport wasn’t found in its usual place. It hints that somebody had come here during my custody,” he added.
Earlier, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) directed the police to ensure that Shahbaz Gill is not tortured in custody. The PTI had approached the IHC against an extension in his remand, however, Acting IHC Chief Justice Amir Farooq asked police to ensure his safety but did not order his release.
In its verdict, which was reserved earlier today, the court asked the federal government and interior secretary to appoint an officer to probe charges of torture. The court also ordered that a retired judge should be appointed as an inquiry officer. It said that an SSP-rank officer should oversee how Gill was treated during his remand and ensure he was not tortured.
In a detailed report submitted to the court, the Islamabad inspector general rejected all allegations leveled against the police and accused Gill of hampering the investigation. The report said that as per jail authorities and experts’ statements at the PIMS hospital, no sign of torture was found on his body. “He was examined by three medical boards and also given an opportunity for a medical examination twice by the ICT administration when he was in jail but he refused,” it added.
The report mentioned that the allegations of physical, mental, and sexual torture in police or jail custody could not be “corroborated by any plausible evidence.” The conduct of Gill to date is not above board and he has put up a show to avoid physical remand, the police report said.
Earlier, a district and sessions court granted a two-day physical remand of Gill in a sedition case after reviewing his medical report. He was presented before the court shortly after being discharged from the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences.
Meanwhile, another video of Shahbaz Gill surfaced Monday morning from the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), ahead of a sedition case hearing against him in a district and sessions court. In the video, Gill is seen sitting at a hospital bed in seemingly the same room as the last video and drinking juice from a bottle while several medical staff and doctors gather around him, insisting he finished the juice.
Gill, on contrary, doesn’t want to drink it but finishes it on the doctor’s insistence. After it, the doctor asks him to eat a banana as well to get better. He first refuses but then takes it saying, “You are forcing me to eat it.”
Gill had been taken into custody from Banigala Chowk on August 9 on charges of inciting mutiny among the public against the ranks and files of the army during a TV program. The PTI contends that he was tortured during police custody.
