Forced disappearances: Court summons Peshawar jailer

Official to brief PHC regarding missing person imprisoned after court martial.

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has summoned the superintendent of the Peshawar Central Jail to inform the court regarding a missing person who was sentenced to three years of imprisonment after his court martial by a military court.

According to the petition submitted by Niaz Hussain’s brother-in-law – a resident of South Waziristan – Hussain went missing on April 4, 2010 when he came to Peshawar to meet his sister — alleging that security agencies picked him up.

However, the prison’s assistant superintendent produced a warrant before the court revealing that Hussain had been sentenced to three years of imprisonment after his court martial by a military court on May 5, 2011.

Heading a divisional bench with Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth, PHC Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan, while hearing the missing persons’ cases here Wednesday, summoned the superintendent of the prison on April 17, to inform the court regarding the charges on which Hussain was convicted.

Case two:

Hearing another case, the PHC chief justice asked officials of the Frontier Corps (FC) to submit their reply when the court was told that Yahya – who went missing from the Pishtakhara area – was allegedly handed over to security forces in Fort Slop, Bara tehsil of the Khyber Agency.

According to the petitioner Fazl-e-Karim, he, along with his son Yahya, was on his way to Bara from Peshawar when they were allegedly picked up by the Pishtakhara police on September 15, 2011.

Fazl-e-Karim in his petition alleged hat he was set free the next day on September 16 but his son was still missing. He further stated that his son has been handed over to security forces at Fort Slop in Bara.

However, the Pishtakhara SHO, in his written reply, denied having picked up Yahya. In reply to these revelations, the chief justice issued notices to the officials of the FC to submit a reply containing details of the whereabouts of Yahya.

Fazl-e-Karim along with his family had migrated from the Khyber Agency due to the deteriorating law and order situation in 2010 and was residing in the Umeed Abad area of the provincial capital.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2012.