Missing person: Man says son killed in ‘fake encounter’, SHC dismisses petition

Appeals court order police to register case against SSP Rao Anwar who led 'encounter'.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) dismissed on Monday a petition seeking the whereabouts of a 'missing person' after his father claimed the detainee was killed in 'fake encounter' by the police officials.

The SHC division bench, comprising justices Irfan Saadat Khan and Zafar Ahmed Rajput, said that the petitioner will be at liberty to "seek appropriate remedy available to him under the law from the competent forum".

The two judges were hearing a petition filed by Syed Zahid Abid Ali, who had approached the court seeking the whereabouts of his son missing since October 2015. The petitioner had named the provincial home secretary, the Rangers director-general, the Sindh IG, the heads of the Special Investigation Unit and the Counter-Terrorism Department, the SSPs of West and East zones, the chief of the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee and the station house officers of the Surjani and Ferozabad police stations, as respondents.

The petitioner said his son, Ammar Ali, a skilled worker at the Pakistan Steel Mills, left his Surjani Town house with a relative, Saad, on October 9, 2015. The following day Ammar was brought home, with his hands tied behind, by around 25 or 30 personnel of the law enforcement agencies in plainclothes.

The law enforcers searched the house and drove away his son with some articles. As the family members approached the Surjani Town police officials to seek information about his whereabouts, the officials directed them to Ferozabad police station, where no information was shared.

In his petition, the father said they also approached the Rangers headquarters to know if his son had been detained for 90 days but the officials denied having detained or arrested him.

During the hearings, the court had ordered the home department to constitute a joint investigation team to investigate the disappearance. During Monday's proceedings, the petitioner, who was present in court, said that he had come to know that his son was killed in a 'fake encounter' by a police team, led by Malir SSP Rao Anwar. He pleaded the court order the police to register a case against him.

"Since the alleged detenue is no more missing person, in view of the statement of the petitioner, the instant petition stands dismissed," ruled the bench. "However, the petitioner will be at liberty to seek appropriate remedy available to him under the law from the competent forum," it added.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th,  2016.