Lal Masjid operation: Two cases registered for locating missing persons

Maulana Abdul Aziz files a case for tracing his mother, another complainant asks the police to look up for his brother

ISLAMABAD:

In compliance of the Supreme Court order, the capital police have started registering cases for tracing people who went missing during Lal Masjid (red mosque) operation in 2007 including the mother of the mosque’s chief cleric.

On Wednesday, two cases, including one filed by Lal Masjid chief cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz for tracing her mother, were registered at Aabpara Police Station. The complainant maintained before the SC that his mother’s body was not among the 103 bodies recovered from mosque after the operation.

“In fact, the bodies recovered were all of males,” said a police official, requesting anonymity. However, he added that the Maulana’s mother, Sahiba Khatun, was arrested by the security agencies along with her son when the latter was trying to escape from the mosque in a burqa (veil) during the operation.

Later, she went back to her native village of Basti Abdullah in Dera Ghazi Khan after her release where she died, said the official while explaining the reason why she was not in the record of the dead.

However, the complainant did not give any indications of his mother’s death and subsequent burial in his native town. Police said the matter will be investigated after the registration of FIR and facts will be presented before the court.

“Maulana Aziz did not contact the police for registration of FIR, we requested him to come for filing a complaint so that the matter could be investigated,” said another police official.

A second FIR (215/12) was registered on the complaint of Sajjad Ahmed for locating his brother Khalid Amin, a resident of Murree, who went missing from the mosque during the 2007 military operation.

Since then, the relatives of Amin have been seeking judiciary’s help in tracing him and many others. The court, after asking the police to submit its report on the complaints, ordered registration of cases of all the missing people. The missing persons should be traced, the police was told.

“The Inspector General of Police (IGP) failed to give a satisfactory reply to court’s inquiries into the incidents surrounding the missing people from Lal Masjid which provoked the court to give orders for FIRs,” added an official of the police.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Additional Inspector-General of Police (Operations) Tahir Alam Khan said all those whose relatives were missing from the mosque were being contacted for registering cases.

He said about a dozen people have been identified and contacted, however, two of them showed up at the police station so far. The rest would also come and there would be more cases in the coming days.

“On the Supreme Court’s directions, we will investigate the cases and will help people finding their loved ones,” said AIG (Operations) Khan. However, he requested all affected people to contact Aabpara police for registration of cases.

These were the people whose names were not included in the list of 103 men who died during the operation. Neither did they return to their families after the operation. The relatives of  the ‘missing’ people had earlier approached the SC for recovery of their loved ones.

Published In The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2012.