SHC seeks comments on whereabouts of missing teachers

According to petition, they have been taken into custody by law enforcement agencies from Lyari

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) sought on Thursday written replies from the provincial home secretary, the director-general of the Rangers and the inspector-general of the police and his subordinates on a petition seeking whereabouts of seven teachers allegedly taken into custody by the law enforcement agencies from the restive Lyari neighborhood.

A division bench, comprising justices Naimatullah Phulpoto and Muhammad Karim Khan Agha, directed the deputy attorney-general and the provincial advocate-general to file replies of the authorities concerned by the next date of hearing on November 3.

The two judges were hearing a petition filed against the alleged detention of the teachers of a private coaching centre by the law enforcement agencies. The court was informed that personnel of law enforcement agencies had taken three men - Ashafiqur Rehman, Owais and Anees - into custody from a private coaching centre run in Lyari.

A petitioner, Muhammad Arif, said that the personnel in civvies whisked away his son, Ashfaqur Rehman, on September 21. He alleged his whereabouts were still unknown to the family ever since. He added that the police and Rangers officials were approached to share information about the detainees, but they turned down pleas to disclose the detainees’ whereabouts.

The court was informed that it did not stop here. A week later, the plain-clothed personnel once again raided the coaching centre, recalled Arif, adding that this time the personnel also took away six other teachers from the centre.

The petitioner alleged that no information about the detainees was being provided to their families, who had apprehensions about them.

The petitioner’s lawyer argued that detention of the relatives of the petitioners was a violation of the fundamental rights as guaranteed in the Constitution.

The court was pleaded to order the official respondents, including police and Rangers authorities, to disclose the whereabouts of the detainees. It was also requested to order the respondents to produce the detainees in the court of law.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7^th, 2016.