Adiala prisoner deaths: SC orders ISI, MI to produce missing prisoners

Lawyer says prisoners died in hospital due to illness, agencies ready to have postmortem done.


Web Desk January 30, 2012

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court ordered Military Intelligence (MI) and the Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) on Monday to produce the prisoners who had disappeared from the Adiala Jail earlier before the court.

Eleven prisoners, convicted for attacking the Pakistan Army’s General Headquarters in Rawalpindi and the ISI’s Hamza Camp, had gone missing from the jail, and four were later found dead.

Lawyer Raja Irshad, on behalf of the MI and the ISI, submitted reports in the court today, which said that the death of four prisoners occurred due to poor health in the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH).

The report added that four other prisoners are in a critical condition and are under treatment in the LRH while three are in Parachinar in an investigation centre.

Irshad told the court that he can bring the four prisoners, currently under treatment, before the court only if the hospital allows him.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said that the prisoners were picked up by the agencies and should now be brought before the court.

Irshad sought more time from the court to file a detailed reply, but the chief justice ignored the request.

The three-judge bench, headed by the chief justice, had served notices to the ISI and MI chiefs on January 25 to explain the circumstances behind the deaths.

Irshad, while talking to the media, said that the agencies were ready to have the postmortem of the dead prisoners done and to hold a forensic inquiry.

The hearing of the case was adjourned till February 9.

COMMENTS (3)

Khalid | 12 years ago | Reply

Salute to the Chief Justice of Pakistan for doing justice to his reinstatement by popular will by standing up for human rights to whatever small extent he can. When we will all stand up for human rights we will restore respect for Pakistan in the comity of nations which in turn will show the world the meaning of Islam and how it enables mankind to become the highiest of the high before the Creator. When we uphold the dignity of man, we actually assert our own which is automatically manifest. We can only rise from that point on and become an exemplary nation for the whole world!

Tim Hover | 12 years ago | Reply

@Peaceful Pakistan: i think thats the only way to deal with terror elements in pakistan given what our justice system has done in sentencing these accused of terrorism so far.

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