Lawyers representing the arrested police Special Operations (SO) officers have filed a complaint at the police service after authorities shaved the heads of arrested officers without consent.

The complaint states that the nonconsensual haircut is against anti-torture laws.

After filing the complaint, the lawyers in a press release said that the arrested officers who were under the custody of the correctional service appeared in court on Monday for their remand hearing with their heads shaved.

The lawyers said that shaving the heads of detainees without their consent is akin to mental torture, and that under the Anti-Torture Act anyone who was involved in the act or assisted in it or had knowledge of it and refused to stop it are all guilty of a criminal offense.

In the press release, the lawyers also said that hair is similar to a person’s limbs under Islamic law and so cutting it off without consent is similar to cutting off someone’s hands or feet. Therefore, the senior officials and employees of the correctional service are liable to give financial compensation to the victims.

Lawyers on Tuesday went to the correctional service to discuss the haircut incident, but senior officials refused to meet with them. Speaking to journalists outside the premises, lawyer Hisaan Hussain said that the eight officers testified in court that correctional service officers had shaved their heads.

This is similar to a controversy in 2010 when then deputy police commissioner Mohamed Rilwan ordered officers to shave the heads of 18 young men, after which the Police Integrity Commission (PIC) filed a lawsuit against Rilwan.