“Being kidnapped by police in Pakistan affected my career”

A man who claims his father was arrested on murder charges and abducted by police while on holiday in Pakistan has become a university lecturer in police studies.

In 2006, Nawaz Hanif was detained by authorities in Mirpur for more than a week and forced to turn himself in for a murder his father did not commit.

His father, Mohammed, was accused of murdering a neighbor and spent four years on death row before being eventually acquitted by a judge and released.

Nawaz, who has taken up a post as lecturer in criminology and policing at Birmingham City University, said he wanted to use his experience to teach the next generation how to police.

Nawaz, from Birmingham, was visiting his family’s ancestral home in Pakistan-administered Kashmir to attend a family wedding.

After a neighbour was shot dead outside the house, authorities suspected Nawaz’s father, even though he was not at home at the time.

“He has been framed for murder but he is totally innocent,” Nawaz told the BBC.

“Not only him, but my uncle and two other relatives were also framed. So all four of them are alleged to have committed this atrocity against an individual who lost his life, but was actually killed by his family.”

Nawaz’s father had previously had a disagreement with a neighbouring family and had gone to the local mayor to seek advice on how to resolve it, when he learned about the shooting and was advised to stay with relatives.

Nawaz (then 18 years old) returned home, heard gunshots, went outside and found the body of a stranger.

“People were panicking, screaming and there was complete chaos. In Pakistan we call them robbers or bandits but we didn’t know who the culprits were,” he said.

Police turned up and “swarmed” the house, with one officer grabbing Mr Nawaz’s wrist and pulling him along before searching his pockets.

The house was searched and Nawaz and his cousin were put into the back of a van and taken to the police station.

“That’s when I realised I had not been arrested but had been abducted by the Pakistani police,” he added.

Nawaz spent the night in the police locker room “trembling with fear”.

After officers told him his father was wanted on a murder warrant and that he “couldn’t go anywhere” until they reached him, he remained at the police station for eight days, unable to contact family or friends or speak to a lawyer.

“I remember breaking down in tears,” he said, “and just saying that my dad wouldn’t do that. He was a very shy, introverted guy, a pacifist, the kind of guy who wouldn’t hit anybody even if they punched him in the face.”

He added that the allegations were “unbelievable.”

He was eventually moved to an “overcrowded” cell, where he claimed he witnessed people being dragged from their cells, beaten and “effectively tortured” to make them “confess to things they almost certainly did not do.”

“I tried to sleep through it as I could hear the echoes all around me and people being beaten.

“There was a guy handcuffed to the top of the cell door,” he said. “He was limp and unconscious, his arms were pale and yellow, and I could tell they’d just handcuffed him and left him there.”

“I remember feeling scared every time the door opened.”

Mohammed eventually went to the police station to have his son released.

After Nawaz was detained along with two other relatives, his mother and brother were evicted from their home, which was ransacked shortly thereafter and remains deserted to this day.

While awaiting trial in Mirpur Central Prison, Mohammed passed the time by writing in a diary, while his family contacted Downing Street, MPs and even Buckingham Palace calling for his release.

“My father was very patient with me through that time,” Nawaz said. “Every time we spoke on the phone, he would tell me, ‘Don’t worry, everything will be OK.'”

He was finally released after four years in detention in 2010 after a Pakistani judge acquitted him and his co-accused, clearing them of all charges.

Nawaz said the deceased man was killed by members of his own family over a land dispute.

He then joined West Midlands Police where he worked in the Professional Standards Unit investigating police misconduct and corruption for nearly 10 years.

He began his new role as a lecturer at BCU in April, after previously teaching on Staffordshire University’s Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship programme.

Sarah Wood, associate dean of the School of Business, Law and Social Sciences, said she was “really pleased” that he was taking up the role.

“He brings real experience and authenticity from what he’s been through throughout his life, not just in his own family environment but in his professional roles,” she said.

For Nawaz, joining BCU to teach the next generation feels like “coming full circle”.

He added that the future of policing in England and Wales was also bright after several high-profile scandals.

“I think there’s kind of a fork in the road as to where we go after Sarah Everard and after David Carrick and I think there’s an opportunity to take the police to places they’ve never been before,” Nawaz explained.

“We hope that by bringing this to light, we can create a new generation of police officers who are willing to live up to their values…” [and] Condemn bad behavior.

“I’m really happy to be here. It feels like I’m coming home.”