‘Military abduction’: High court summons station house officer

Petitioner claims son was abducted to press the family to forfeit their land.

RAWALPINDI:

A court on Thursday summoned SHO Saddar Bairuni, in the case of a man from Swat allegedly abducted by the Punjab police’s elite force.

Justice Mazhar Iqbal Sindhu of the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench directed the SHO and the investigation officer to appear before the court on March 28 to inform the court about the progress made in the case of 46-year-old Muhammad Saleem.

Punjab Assistant Advocate General Muhammad Shahid Abbasi said if Mumtaz was dissatisfied, she should approach the Supreme Court, where a special bench has been hearing cases of missing persons.

Earlier on Monday, the petitioner, an internally displaced person (IDP) from Swat, issued a statement through her lawyer Sanaullah Zahid, claiming that her son had been taken away by military authorities to press the family to forfeit their land in Swat.

The petitioner said her family left their house in Kota Tehsil Barikot, Swat, where they had fruit orchards. Since they were registered as IDPs, they were to go back after the military operation, but that did not happen, “because we were being harassed and threatened,” she added.

“In July 2009, the army destroyed the orchards and took over our belongings, forcing my husband to move the Peshawar High Court against the illegal occupation of the land. The court decided the case in my husband’s favour,” she said.

Mumtaz claimed that the military authorities, instead of complying with court orders, harboured grudges. She said that they had moved the Supreme Court against their land’s occupation and the court decided the case on January 27.

It was decided that the land’s possession was to be handed back to its rightful owners after a deputy attorney general said the occupation was only temporary to safeguard the rights of IDPs.

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

She urged the court to declare Saleem’s detention as unlawful and direct the authorities to produce him before the court.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 23^rd, 2012.