Excise officer booked over bribery, torture allegations

Abbottabad: An additional SHO of the Excise Police Station Abbottabad has been booked on allegations of seeking a Rs1.5 million bribe and illegally detaining and torturing residents of Peshawar, after senior authorities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa intervened.

The Excise Department has also suspended the officer, Sub-Inspector Naseem Khan, and started a departmental inquiry, according to official sources. The case was registered on the complaint of Imran Afridi, son of Haji Yousuf Jan and a resident of Peshawar.

According to the FIR, the complainant said that on June 1, 2026, he was travelling to Naran with several companions, including Naik Muhammad, Inamullah, Ayazul and Kamran, when they were stopped near Khokhar Mira in Abbottabad district on the Hazara Motorway by about 10 men in official uniforms.

The FIR states that the men identified themselves as excise officials, forced him out of his Honda Civic and placed him in another vehicle before taking him to a nearby restaurant. The complainant alleged that he and his companions were verbally abused, their mobile phones were taken, cash in their possession was seized, and they were asked to pay Rs1.5 million. The FIR further says that when the demand was not met by midnight, the group was taken to the Excise Police Station, where they were allegedly beaten with sticks and kept in unlawful detention.