RAWALPINDI:
The joint investigation team searching for a missing person from Swat informed the court on Thursday that they have not received a response from military authorities.
A report submitted to the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench by the Saddar Bairuni SHO said they wrote a letter to the commanding officer of armed forces in Swat, seeking information about Muhammad Saleem, 46, who was allegedly picked up by the Punjab Elite Force on February 24. However, the only response they received said the request should be made through the defence ministry.
The report also said that there is no criminal case pending against Saleem, though some men from his tribe have been allegedly involved in terrorist activities.
Justice Shahid Hameed Dar of the LHC directed the SHO and SP Headquarters to appear in court on April 30 along with the investigation details.
Earlier, police officials had denied the claim that Saleem was picked up by the elite force.
The petition, filed by Saleem’s mother Mumtaz Begum, alleges that her son was abducted on the directive of military authorities to press the family into forfeiting 500 kanals of agricultural land in Swat.
The petitioner said her late husband Abdul Ghaffar Khan first moved the Peshawar High Court and then the Supreme Court (SC) to get the land back from the army, which it had cultivated following the military operation in the area.
When the military authorities and relevant revenue department could not prove the claim of her husband as untrue, the SC ordered the land to be handed back, she said.
However the authorities present in Swat had been pressurising the family not to disturb the land, she alleged.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 20th, 2012.
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