‘Military abduction’: Widow files petition to find missing son

Accuses the army of taking over family land in Swat.

RAWALPINDI:

A widow from Swat, presently living in Rawalpindi, approached the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) Rawalpindi bench on Monday, alleging that her son had been nabbed by military authorities in a bid to take over her family land and orchards in Swat.

Mumtaz Begum, citing the state and Rawalpindi police as respondents, alleged that on February 24, Punjab police’s elite force along with men in civvies took away here son Muhammad Saleem from their house in Gulshanabad on Adiala Road.  Justice Mazhar Iqbal Sindu of the LHC’s Rawalpindi bench directed the superintendent of police (SP) Headquarters Rawalpindi controlling the elite force to appear himself, or an officer not blow the rank of a deputy superintendent of police DSP in the court to respond to the petition of Mumtaz Begum by March 22.

The petitioner, an internally displaced person (IDP) from Swat, issued a statement through her lawyer Sanaullah Zaid, claiming that her son had been taken away by the military authorities to press the family to forfeit their land in Swat. “It was on the night between February 23 and 24 that the personnel raided my house and took away Saleem and his son Sohaib. They later released Sohaib but took away Saleem to an undisclosed location. I reported the matter to Saddar Berooni police and they registered an abduction case against unidentified men,” Begum claimed.

Explaining the background of the case, the petitioner added that her family, along with her late husband Abdul Ghaffar Khan left their house in Kota Tehsil Barikot district in Swat where he used to cultivate around 500 kanals of land, growing peach, apricot and plum. Since they were registered as IDPs, they were to go back after the military operation, but could not because they were being harassed and threatened.

“In July 2009, the army destroyed the orchards and took over our belongings, forcing my husband to move the Peshawar High Court (PHC) against the alleged illegal occupation of the land. The high court decided the case in favour of my husband,” she added.  Unfortunately the military authorities, instead of complying with the high court orders, harboured grudges against the petitioners and started harassing the family and their legal attorneys.

The petitioner further mentioned that they had moved the Supreme Court against the occupation of their land, and the court decided the case on January 27, saying the possession of the land was to be handed over back to the rightful owners, after a deputy attorney general said the occupation was temporary to safeguard the rights of the IDPs.

After the court’s ruling, Mumtaz Begum reiterated that the land was handed over to their legal attorney, but military officials present in Swat had started harassing them and threatened them not to interfere, as the orchards had been leased by the army to civilian contractors.

She urged the LHC to declare the detention of Saleem as unlawful, and to direct the authorities to produce him before the court.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 20^th, 2012.