From Adiala jail to agencies: Six minutes with ‘missing’ brothers

Four detainees in Peshawar hospital; three others claimed to be in Parachinar

PESHAWAR: When Qari Abdul Baais saw his brothers, he could not recognise them. But the six-minute-long meeting gave him hope that his family may be reunited.

Three of his brothers, Abdul Majid, Abdul Basit and Abdul Saboor, were among the 11 men charged with involvement in the attack on Pakistan Army’s General Headquarters in October 2009 and the one on the ISI’s Hamza Camp. After their acquittal and subsequent release from Adiala Jail in May 2010, the prisoners were picked up by intelligence agencies – which later conceded that the ‘missing men’ were in their custody after the matter went to court.

At a recent hearing at the Supreme Court, the counsel appearing on behalf of the Inter-Services Intelligence and the Military Intelligence told the court that some of the missing persons were being treated in the hospital. The SC then directed authorities concerned to arrange a meeting between the men and their families.

And so it would happen. The brothers were in one room  after three years. But in the presence of a security official there was little that could be said.

Abdul Baais said two of his brothers were in a “ghastly” condition and were being treated at the plastic surgery unit of the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH). “The torture has made them so weak that it was difficult to identify them,” he said. Abdul Majid had an urination pipe attached to his body and Abdul Basit’s legs looked as if they had been infected by polio, he added.

There was a third brother, Abdul Saboor – but he was not present in the room. His body had been found by a roadside in Peshawar days before the meeting. “It was a difficult moment. We were at a loss of words,” Abdul Baais said.

But it was Saboor’s death that was perhaps the catalyst that allowed the reunion.

After Abdul Saboor’s death, in an appeal to the Supreme Court, their mother, Rohifa, said that intelligence agencies should be ordered to immediately kill her sons and hand over their bodies to her if the superior courts could not provide relief to ordinary citizens. The petition challenged the trial of the previously ‘missing men’ under the Army Act.

Abdul Saboor, 29, is the fourth civilian detained in the case to have died under mysterious circumstances over the past six months — Mohammad Aamir died on August 15 last year, Tahseen Ullah on December 17, and Said Arab on December 18.

“It took me around 24 hours to find where they were being kept at the hospital,” Abdul Baais said of the meeting that took place a few days ago following the Supreme Court’s orders. “They were blindfolded and made to wear a cap when they opened their eyes because they were not able to adjust to light. It’s probably because of long internments in dark spaces,” he added.

Two other men, identified as Dr Niaz and Gul Roze, are also being treated at the hospital, but a relative of Dr Niaz, when approached by The Express Tribune, refused to discuss the matter.

Abdul Baais claimed that three other men, identified as Shafiqur Rehman, Mohammad Shafiq and Mazhar, were in custody somewhere in Parachinar, Kurram Agency.

The short but overwhelming meeting has given Abdul Baais some hope that his brothers might be released. “There is some hope that they will be released, but you can never be sure about their (spy agencies’) intentions.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 4^th, 2012.