14 years on…: SC orders recovery of missing persons in 15 days

Khuram Ilyas, a ‘brilliant’ second-year student, was last heard of on July 22, 1998.

BAHAWALPUR:

The Supreme Court has ordered the recovery of a man who was allegedly abducted by Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) workers and subsequently inducted into the ‘jihad industry’ by the intelligence agencies in the late ‘90s.

Sharif Virk, a one-time inspector-general of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and a member of the missing persons’ commission constituted by the Supreme Court, has ordered that a case be initiated against the accused individuals involved in the abduction, according to an uncle of the kidnapped victim Khuram Ilyas, Advocate Rana Dilshad.

Dilshad has also shared evidence of death threats before the judicial commission while DSP (legal) Jameel Chohan told The Express Tribune that all persons involved in the case had been summoned to district police officer’s office on May 23.

Ilyas’ family has blamed JuD and intelligence agencies for his abduction. Ilyas, a ‘brilliant’ second-year student at Quaid-e-Azam Medical College, Bahawalpur, was last heard of on July 22, 1998, when he was contacted by his friend Dr Shoaib.

Dr Shoaib, an alleged JuD member, would recruit students from the university  who would later be inducted into the ‘jihad industry’ by the intelligence agencies, said Dilshad. He went on to add that he and Ilyas’ mother had also filed a First Information Report (FIR) in Civil Lines police station against three JuD members, namely Abdul Ghaffar, Dr Shoaib and Professor Azhar.

During initial investigations by the police, the accused had acknowledged making contact with Ilyas and claimed that he had left for Kashmir to perform jihad of his own volition. The accused had also made allegations against the police, saying that their statement had been altered to say that Ilyas had gone to Afghanistan. Police officials confirmed after investigations that the victim had either travelled to Afghanistan or Kashmir.

Furthermore, according to Dilshad, the police had found Ilyas’ backpack, books and even his clothes from the residence of Dr Shoaib. Official police records also confirmed that the items had been recovered at the residence of one of the accused.

Dilshad went on to add the even though the accused individuals had been arrested by the police several  times, personnel belonging to the intelligence agencies had secured their release each time by showing up at the police station in plain-clothes.

Former attorney general Malik Abdul Qayyum had also submitted a list of 28 people in the Supreme Court in 2007-2008 which included Ilyas’ name, according to Dilshad.

Meanwhile, officials of the Intelligence Bureau had informed Ilyas’ mother after investigations in 2007 that Ilyas had been handed over to the Inter-Services Intelligence by the accused individuals. Former Deputy Attorney General Naheeda Mehboob Elahi had also revealed to the Supreme Court in 2007 that Ilyas had been found and would soon return to his mother, Iqbal Bibi.

But, five years on with no progress in sight, Ilyas’ aged mother whose vision is slowly deteriorating still yearns to see her missing son.

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