CHINIOT: In protest at the `killing` of a man in police custody, villagers protested against the police for their refusal to register a case against the suspects.

Nosher Ali, 55, of village Thatta Risalu, tehsil Bhowana, was arrested by the Kot Wasawa police late on Saturday.

According to his widow, Kousar Parveen, the police took her into custody when she was alone at home and detained her at the police station. When Nosher came to the police station for her release, the police arrested him and let her go.

She alleged the police tortured her husband the whole night and when he died, they threw the body back into the house.

The relatives and villagers took the body to the Bhowana THQ Hospital for an autopsy where doctors demanded a police report for making a medical board, which was not provided by the police. The villagers protested outside the hospital.

Kousar appealed to Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi to take noticeof the murder of her husband and punish the suspects. She said Nosher was a labourer who worked on farms and houses to earn bread for the family. The family has three children.

Spol(esperson for police Mohsin Hassan said the deceased was taken into custody last night `on a tipoff by an informer` that he was a drug peddler.

However, his condition deteriorated during interrogation and he was taken to his house when he was alive.

Later, he died at his house.

The protesters questioned why was he kept in the police station without the registration of any case for the whole night and why was he released without any punishment. If he was arrested lawfully, why the police preferred to release him and did not send him to a hospital in police custody? The villagers demanded a judicial inquiry into the grave police high-handedness incident and exemplary punishment for responsible police officials.

-Correspondent