The capital's high court has expressed anger and frustration over the Islamabad Police's failure to recover four brothers, who had gone missing from Islamabad in early 2024.
Justice Muhammad Asif, presiding over a single-member Islamabad High Court (IHC) bench, resumed hearing a petition filed by the family of the missing siblings on Monday.
During the hearing, the judge noted that every few days, a new case of enforced disappearance lands in court. "We place our trust in the police, but they have failed to deliver," he said.
The director general legal of Islamabad Police claimed that in many cases, people leave home voluntarily, only to later reappear and testify before a magistrate that they had been away on personal trips.
The counsel for the petitioner questioned how the Punjab Police managed to round up the brothers from within the jurisdiction of Islamabad Police, adding that one year and four months had passed without any progress in their recovery.
He further pointed out that three Punjab Police personnel were nominated as accused in the case but had not been arrested. "Both Islamabad and Punjab police have failed to recover the brothers," he said.
The Islamabad Police deputy inspector general (DIG) told the bench that the police officials were issued notices but they did not participate in the investigations. "Now we will request their arrest warrants."
The judge observed that the police should have sought the warrants of the accused earlier. "All this can also happen with you and I. What will we do then?" he asked.
The Punjab Police senior superintendent police (SSP) assured the court that the provincial police would get the arrest warrants of the accused official executed and submit a report in the court.
During the hearing, the mother of the missing brothers fainted from grief, prompting a sympathetic response from police officials and female lawyers
While hearing the case in October 2024, IHC then chief justice Aamer Farooq had castigated authorities for their failure to recover the brothers and also sought reports from the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Defense.
The IHC had also directed the senior superintendents of police (SSP) in Islamabad and Rawalpindi to appear in person at the next hearing along with progress reports, warning that otherwise it would issue their arrest warrants.
The four brothers had gone missing in January 2024 from the Barakahu area of the federal capital.
According to the petitioner, the brothers were picked up by Rawalpindi police from Khanna, which falls under Islamabad's jurisdiction, in January. However, police authorities from both Islamabad and Punjab later denied having detained them.
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