‘Picked up by army’: Court summons DSP in missing person’s case

Saleem’s mother alleged that her son was picked up by the elite Punjab police and handed over to the army.

RAWALPINDI:

A court summoned an official of the Rawalpindi police in a missing person’s case.

An annoyed Justice Shahid Hameed Dar of the LHC Rawalpindi Bench issued summons for DSP Saddar and Saddar Bairuni SHO for the next hearing on April 3. The SHO was also summoned in the previous hearing.

In a statement on March 19, Saleem’s mother, Mumtaz Begum, alleged that he was picked up by the elite Punjab police and handed over to the army. She said the army is trying to harass them into surrendering their land in Barikot, Swat. The police had earlier told the court that they are investigating into the matter.

The army, she said, had taken over their orchards by force. A subsequent case in the Peshawar High Court went in the family’s favour and the land was handed over to their legal attorney.

But the local army officials started harassing them, threatening them not to interfere, as the orchards had been leased by the army to civilian contractors.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29^th, 2012.