LHC directs authorities to recover missing boy

Chief Justice of LHC directed the federal and provincial governments to recover and produce Ahtisham, a missing boy.

LAHORE:

Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court on Monday directed the federal and provincial governments to recover and produce Ahtisham Akhter, a missing boy, in court by August 6.

Ahtisham’s brother Hashaam ul Mulk who had also gone missing earlier, had been in the alleged custody of secret agencies. However, he reached the court on Monday on his own and recorded his statement.

Hashaam informed the court that plain clothed personnel of the secret services had raided his house and taken them to some unknown place, blindfolded. He said the raiders also took away valuables from their house, including gold ornaments and cash.

He said that he had also heard his brother Ahtisham’s screams coming from the place where he was being kept by the personnel. He said they had covered his eyes but he could recognise the sound of his brother’s voice and knew that he too was in their custody. However, Hashaam said, they had released him alone and had dumped him on to a road near his house.

He admitted that his brother Ahtisham had participated in the Afghan jihad, but he himself had no link with such activities.

Akhter Bano of Harbanspura, Lahore, filed a habeas corpus petition for the recovery of her sons, who were also injured in a Peshawar bomb blast.

The petitioner submitted that her sons were accidentally injured in a bomb blast in Peshawar and had been admitted to a local hospital in Lahore for medical treatment.

In the last hearing, Defence Secretary Syed Athar Ali told the court that both brothers were not in the custody of the ISI or the MI.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 27^th, 2010.