Missing man located after IHC's intervention

Ministry of Defence informs court Mudassir Khan is facing a military court trial

ISLAMABAD:

Mudassir Khan, a man who went missing from Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) in March 2024, is a prisoner facing trial at a military court, authorities informed the capital's high court on Friday.

On Tuesday, December 24, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had directed the Military Intelligence (MI) director general to submit a report on the whereabouts of Khan, while hearing a petition filed by his wife Nazima Fatehyab through her counsel Imaan Mazari.

Appearing in the court on behalf of the Ministry of Defence, Brigadier Falak Naz on Friday submitted the report to the single-member bench comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani with regard to the missing person. The assistant attorney general appeared on behalf of the federal government.

According to the report, Mudassir Khan has been located. He is an under-trial prisoner, and his case is being heard in a military court.

During the hearing, the petitioner's lawyer Imaan Mazari requested the court to allow Khan's family to meet the accused.

The court directed the Ministry of Defence representative to facilitate the meeting in accordance with the law and then adjourned the hearing.

At the last hearing, the IHC called into question the utility of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, which, the judge noted, neither performs its duties nor allows others to do so.

"What is the point of a commission that does not function? It should be shut down. If the commission were working, why would the petitioner have to approach the court?" He asked

During the hearing, the assistant attorney general informed the court that Khan had gone missing from Muzaffarabad, the capital of the AJK, and that an FIR had been registered there.

The court inquired whether a different army, a different Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and a different MI operated in the AJK.

Mazari had informed the court that on November 18, the petitioner received a call from an unknown number. "The caller, claiming to be the petitioner's husband, said he was in the custody of an agency."

She referred to Kashmiri poet Ahmed Farhad's case, who had also gone missing in Islamabad and was later located at a police station of the AJK after the court's intervention.

She said Farhad's wife had also conveyed a message over the phone that if she withdrew her petition filed in the IHC, her husband would return home within a few days.