Missing man case: Court seeks reply from police officer

Man files petition in IHC for recovery of his son who went missing Nov last.

ISLAMABAD:

A court directed the Station House Officer (SHO) of Golra to submit his reply on a petition filed by a man seeking the recovery of his son who went missing last year.

On Monday, Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan directed SHO Golra Qasim Khan Niazi to respond by April 28, after Wasif Khan, a resident of Al-Huda Colony Dalazak Road Peshawar, moved the court for assistance in the recovery of his son, Bilal Khan, who went missing last year from Pind Paracha area.

Earlier on April 19, the court issued a notice to the secretary of Ministry of Interior and SHO Tarnol, Fazalur Rehman, to respond to the petition. However, the sub-inspector of Tarnol area, Muhammad Idrees, appeared before the court and informed that the Pind Paracha area was out of his jurisdiction. He said the place where Bilal was picked up fell under the jurisdiction of Golra Police Station.

The petitioner’s counsel, Rehmanullah Shah, told the court that Wasif moved with his family to Islamabad from Peshawar in pursuit of better employment opportunities. On November 9, 2010, he said, policeman and an intelligence agency official raided his house in Pind Paracha and picked up his son without stating a reason.

“The respondents have kept his son in illegal custody without any kind of legal justification. Neither has he been charged nor has he been produced before the court,” the counsel said, adding that Bilal was not involved in any terrorist activities and had a good reputation in his community.

“If he was found guilty he should be produced before the court. But, since last November, he has been kept in illegal detention, which is in violation of human rights,” maintained the lawyer.

He prayed the court to direct the concerned authority to produce Bilal out of illegal detention.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 26^th, 2011.