Missing persons case: Court seeks record of men released from Bagram

Barrister asked court to order government to confirm release of citizens and give them access to families and lawyers.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court on Friday issued instructions to the Interior Ministry to send a senior official with a detailed record of Pakistani citizens released from the Bagram internment camp in Afghanistan at the next hearing of the missing persons case.

Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) had filed an application in its main case and informed the court that international organisations including the Red Cross had confirmed that 10 Pakistani citizens detained at Bagram jail were released and repatriated.

Barrister Sarah Bilal from the JPP said Pakistani authorities had not provided information to the families of the detainees or their lawyers regarding their whereabouts. She also gave the court names of the 10 men released from Bagram. They were: Awal Noor, Bismillah Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Paizoo Khan, Farman Shah, Abdul Sattar, Shah Khalid, Wajid Rehman, Rehmatullah, Sallah Muhammad.

She asked the court to order the government to confirm the release of the citizens and give them access to their families and lawyers.

Justice Khalid Mahmood Khan adjourned the hearing until May 20 and directed the Interior Ministry to produce record of the Pakistani detainees released from Bagram.

The JPP, a not-for-profit law firm, in its main petition said that at least 25 Pakistani citizens had been detained at Bagram without any charge or trial since 2003.

It alleged that these citizens were abducted from Pakistan and taken to the infamous US prison in Afghanistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2014.