MPA Tahir Khalil Sandhu, a Christan MPA, on Monday condemned the Saturday attack on the Christian Pir Mahal Assistant Commissioner by a group of lawyers.
The MPA highlighted this case of assault and torture during a session of the Punjab Assembly on Monday, where he said, “Pir Mahal AC Irfan Martin is an honest officer with excellent repute but a sad incident happened to him.”
The MPA then said that on Saturday October 8, a group of lawyers had visited Pir Mahal Assistant Commissioner Irfan Martin in his office, and had locked the room and held him hostage for many hours during which they beat and tortured him.
According to Sandhu, who has previously served as the human rights and minorities affairs minister as well, the lawyers were attempting to intimidate Martin into giving a decision in their favor over a land dispute case, and had visited his office to pressurise him. Upon seeing his refusal to comply, the lawyers held him hostage and beat him. “He was tortured and kept hostage, and he faced all this just because of the reason that he is a non-Muslim,” said Sandhu.
An FIR has been filed against lawyers Imtisal Chaudhry, Rana Haseeb, Suhaib Munir Ramay, Jamil Vaince, Shaban Nonari, Sufian Nonari, Muhammad Hussain Fraz, Rao Noaman, Akram Nonari and their 10 unidentified accomplices, under Section 7 of the ATA and Sections 506, 365, 382, 353, 186, 148 and 149 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Sandhu said that although the FIR had been submitted, no arrest has been made thus far, saying that it was regrettable that neither home minister nor law minister were present that day.
