A police officer stands guard in Peshawar, Pakistan, August 5, 2023.
(London) – Pakistani authorities should ensure a prompt, independent, and transparent criminal investigation into the deaths on August 5, 2026, of a woman and a 17-year-old girl in police custody in Lahore, Punjab province, Human Rights Watch said today.
The deaths of the sisters-in-law, identified only as Anmol and Amina, highlight longstanding concerns about torture and other ill-treatment in police custody, particularly of women, and the persistent failure by the authorities to hold police officers accountable for abuse despite passage of a 2022 law to address the problem.
“The authorities in Lahore have obligations under Pakistani and international law to promptly and impartially investigate the deaths of a woman and girl in police custody,” said Patricia Gossman, senior Asia associate director at Human Rights Watch. “That investigation needs to be independent of the officers under scrutiny, and those responsible for any wrongdoing need to be appropriately prosecuted.”
Lahore police stated that on August 4 at 2:45 p.m., they received a complaint from a local resident alleging that the women had entered his house and taken gold ornaments and cash. Other reports indicate that residents apprehended the two sisters-in-law—identified only as Anmol and Amina—and handed them over to the police.
The police said that they registered a First Information Report that afternoon and that one sister-in-law was moved to the Lytton Road police station under female officers’ supervision and the other to the Township police station. The police claimed that within hours of their transfers, the health of both sharply deteriorated. Anmol, the woman, died at the police station and Amina died after being moved to a hospital.
The autopsies were delayed by nearly two days because the police had not completed
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