E/CN.4/1997/7/Add.2 page 13 could not be overheard. Despite this modicum of privacy, many detainees expressed concerns that they would suffer reprisals following the departure of the Special Rapporteur, and therefore, some, but not all, mainly in Karachi, refused to provide any testimony about possible abuses on the part of the police, Rangers or prison staff. The Special Rapporteur notes with concern that upon his return from Pakistan he received a letter signed by inmates of Karachi Central Jail who claimed that they had been denied permission to meet with the Special Rapporteur and that they had been moved prior to his visit because they could provide testimony of the torture that is inflicted upon the prisoners by the staff of the jail. 46. Most of the prisoners who dared to speak claimed to have been ill treated while in custody and/or to have witnessed the ill-treatment of other prisoners. The ill-treatment described included beatings, burning with cigarettes, whippings with rubber or leather straps, sexual assault, being hung upside down for prolonged periods, electric shocks, deprivation of sleep, mock executions, the use of fetters, blindfolding for periods of up to 16 days and public humiliation. Although many of these prisoners claimed that the police, Rangers and prison officials had used force to elicit confessions and to compel detainees to incriminate others, some indicated that the force was used to extort money or merely to humiliate individuals. Marks of torture were visible on several of the prisoners; one prisoner removed his shirt to show the Special Rapporteur the large welts on his back caused by whippings with a leather strap. 47. In the testimony describing his detention from 30 November to 4 December 1995 at CIA headquarters in Hyderabad (see paras. 28 and 29 above), Dr. Halepota testified that he was held in what the officials called the "torture cell" and interrogated by a joint interrogation team of CIA and military intelligence. Although he himself was not ill treated physically, he claimed to have witnessed the torture of 11 inmates. The other inmates were allegedly subjected to blindfolding, beatings with fists and implements, incisions on their skin with blades, whippings with wooden strips, being hung upside down and deprivation of food and water. 48. With regard to the custody of women, a 1994 amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code prohibits a magistrate from authorizing the detention in police custody of a female except in cases involving qatl (murder) or dacoity. This amendment also requires the police officer undertaking investigation of a female to interrogate the accused in the prison in the presence of an officer of the jail and a female police officer. Despite these safeguards, the Special Rapporteur received numerous allegations of women being held in police custody and raped. The Special Rapporteur regrets that he was unable to investigate these allegations during the mission, but he took note of several cases reported by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in which policemen were charged with rape. 49. During the mission, the Special Rapporteur also received reliable reports that medical care is frequently denied to detainees who have been seriously injured or are seriously ill. One case presented to the Special Rapporteur concerned a young man, Ghulam Hyder, who had been shot by the police during the course of his arrest. The gunshot wound had left him paralysed and his health had further deteriorated while in custody at Karachi Central Jail.