Detained persons: IHC summons security officials

Man moves court against illegal detention of his brothers.

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court summoned on Thursday army’s lawyer on a petition filed by a man challenging the detention of his three brothers. The petitioner, Mufti Abdul Bias, brother of Syed Abdul Saboor, Syed Abdul Majid and Syed Abdul Basit, filed a habeas corpus petition in the IHC through their counsel Tariq Asad, challenging their illegal detention by the intelligence agencies for their alleged involvement in terrorist activities.

The IHC summoned Judge Adjutant General, Secretary Interior, Director Generals (DGs) of Military Intelligence and Inter-Service Intelligence, Adiala jail superintendent and his deputy to submit their comments and adjourned the hearing till the second week of September. The other eight detained men are: Dr Niaz Ahmed, Mazharul Haq, Shafiqur Rehman, Muhammad Aamir, Shafique Ahmed, Saeed Arab, Gul Roze and Tehseenullah.

The petitioner’s counsel argued that his clients were in illegal detention since April 8, 2010, despite the fact that the Anti-Terrorism Court had acquitted them. But the Rawalpindi DCO issued a 30-day detention order for them. Later it was extended to another 50 days.

The three brothers along with eight others were acquitted in four terrorism cases by a trial court. The counsel further maintained that Justice Khawaja Imtiaz Ahmed of Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi Bench set aside their detention orders on May 2010. He said that instead of releasing them, the Superintendent of Adiala Jail Saeedullah Gondal handed them over to personnel of an intelligence agency.

He told the court that their families had also filed a petition in the Supreme Court (SC) in December last year. The lawyer representing the spy agencies told the SC that the three men were in their custody, and would be tried under the Army Act. He informed the court that families of the other detained men expressed grave concern and wanted to ensure their safety since one of the detained, Muhammad Amir, was found dead on August 15, after being allegedly tortured.

He urged the court to direct  the respondents to arrange a meeting with their families. On this, the court ordered the agencies to arrange a meeting of the detained persons with their families within 10 days.



Published in The Express Tribune, August 19^th, 2011.