Peshawar High Court: K-P directed to publish names of internment camp detainees

Court says the move will let families know they are alive.

PESHAWAR:

Peshawar High Court (PHC) has directed the provincial government to publish the names of all detainees to be shifted to internment centres.

The court also expressed concern over the unavailability of the minutes of meetings of the apex committee responsible for the missing persons’ case.

During the hearing on Tuesday, a division bench headed by PHC Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Muftahuddin was informed by Deputy Attorney General Iqbal Mohmand that the minutes of the meeting could not be recorded due to the sensitivity of the case.

However, Justice Dost Muhammad Khan appeared unconvinced and said: “It would be more advisable to record the minutes of the committee’s meetings in the future.”

The bench was told that the transfer process of internees to internment centres had picked up pace with the help of security forces and that it would be completed in a couple of weeks.

“Since the detainees are at different locations, their data is being collected and compiled. It will hardly take two weeks to collect all the data and transfer the people to internment centres,” Deputy Attorney General Iqbal Mohmand said.

Justice Khan, however, questioned why everyone was being shifted collectively and asked for the records to be handed to the home secretary and the provincial police inspector general. “Why not shift them on a weekly basis? There should be an internment order for each and every individual.”

Justice Khan added that “keeping in mind the agony and mental torture the relatives of these people have suffered, the KP government is directed to publish the names of the detainees so their families know that they are alive.”

He ordered that the relatives of the internees be allowed to meet them after proper documentation as under the provision of the Actions (in Aid of Civil Power) Regulation, 2011.

Separate cases

PCH has asked political agent of Khyber, assistant political agent of Jamrud, naib tehsildar of Mullagori, and line officers of Mulagori and Jamrud, to submit a written reply after Additional Advocate General Durrani informed the court that all the respondents denied having picked up Inayatullah, a resident of Warsak village.

Amin-ur-Rehman, the counsel for Fazl-e-Ghani, petitioner and brother of the detained, informed the court that Inayatullah was picked up in a raid along with four other people, including Fazl-e-Ghani. However, the others were released whereas Inayatullah still remained in custody.

According to the petition, the five people were blindfolded and shifted to Michni Rest House in Mohmand agency.

In another case, the counsel representing the three detained people said the detainees could identify the people who came to pick them up from a hotel, alleging that one of them was an SHO of the area.

According to the petition, Abdul Wahab, Shah Muhammad and Muhammad Islam, residents of the Ghaljo village in Orakzai Agency, came to Peshawar on December 10, 2011. They were staying at a local hotel when they were picked up and forced to call Abdul Wahab’s father Gulmat Shah, asking him to come to the Lady Reading Hospital.

Upon reaching the hospital, Gulmat Shah was also picked up and shifted to an undisclosed location.

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