Hand him over to family, not agencies

Court directs SP Adiala Jail to ensure Ilyas safe return to family.

RAWALPINDI:

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday directed the superintendent of Adiala Jail to hand over the man acquitted in different terrorism cases to his son if his innocence had been proved.

Justice Sheikh Ahmed Farooq of the LHC Rawalpindi bench disposed of the petition of Muhammad Ashfaq and directed the jail authorities to hand over Muhammad Ilyas alias Qari Jamil to his family if there was no case pending against him.

The detention orders of Ilyas are going to expire on Tuesday and his son approached the high court in a pre-emptive petition fearing his father would be taken away by intelligence agencies after release.

Ilyas along with eight other men was arrested by Rawalpindi police in March 2009 for carrying huge quantity of explosives and weapons and was tried for involvement three terrorist cases. These include the February 2008 suicide attack on the military surgeon general, June 2008 terrorist attack outside Danish Embassy Islamabad and the July 2008 suicide attack on policemen at Melody Chowk.

He was convicted by the court of a magistrate with seven year jail, which was later set aside by the high court in April this year. Later, he was detained four months on the orders of the interior ministry.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2011.