LAHORE: Sajid Masih, cousin of the main accused of blasphemy Patras Masih, jumped from the fourth floor of the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Punjab headquarters building during an ongoing investigation. In a recently released video, the suspect of a blasphemy case has made horrible allegations against the FIA investigators who he claims initially tortured him and then later forced him to engage in sexual acts with his cousin.
The case started when an FIR was lodged against Patras to the Shahdara Town Police Station under blasphemy law of which the 18 year old was accused. Hafiz Muhammad Awais, who filed the complaint claimed that Patras was guilty of posting sacrilegious content and sharing it with his cousin on a Facebook group, “Paaglon Ki Basti” on January 16th.
Patras had then been taken into custody by police and handed over to the FIA cybercrime wing on Friday. Sajid Masih was summoned to the headquarters for further questioning since his cousin had admitted to sharing the photo with him.
In a video statement shared by Advocate Aneeqa Maria of The Voice Society, a tortured and injured Sajid alleged that: “They [FIA officials] called me to the headquarters to record my testimony.”
“They took my mobile phone for examination and later started beating me. When I asked them what my fault was, they responded haughtily that ‘we are beating you because you are the cousin of prime accused.’”
“They later took me and Patras to the fourth floor of the building and started beating both of us. We were also told to call each other ‘Laanti’ (accursed) which my cousin complied with.”
He further added, “After that, the FIA officials asked me to take off my cousin’s trousers and have sex with him. I refused to comply with their directives. I pleaded them that I can’t have sex with my brother, which made them [FIA officials] angry. However, they insisted and I had no option but to jump through the window of the room.”
Sajid also states in the video that he was treated like a criminal although the officials found no incriminating evidence in his mobile.
Here is the video in question, shared by Pakistan Today on Facebook;
https://www.facebook.com/PakistanToday/videos/1862931873737846/
However, the FIA has since then rejected all of Sajid’s claims and FIA Sub-Inspector Khalid Saeed claimed that the suspect jumped as he panicked during investigation. In an interview with Pakistan Today he is reported to have made the following statements.
“Sajid and his parents arrived at the FIA headquarters at 11.30am on Friday to record his statement. I started questioning him after the Friday prayers as I wanted to record the statements of the complainants first. Moreover, the complainants had beaten up Patras Masih at the district courts earlier in the day so I wanted to avoid a similar situation at the FIA.
He further claimed that, “During interrogation I repeatedly asked Sajid to share the password of his cell phone but he refused to do so. I did not touch him even once but he was very afraid and probably that’s why he jumped out of the window.”
“There were at least five persons present in the room at that time, including the main accused Patras. Around 6pm, I was preparing to perform Namaz when suddenly Sajid leaped out of the window,” stating that FIA officials had not tortured the two cousins.
He also added that he had been “advised to refrain from giving any comments to the media by my senior officer, Khawaja Hamaad.”
The FIA has registered an FIR against Sajid Masih for “attempted suicide” and Federal Minister for Interior Ahsan Iqbal has ordered an inquiry against the FIA’s actions after Pakistan Today released the story.
