In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa: 92% of around 1,000 missing persons safely recovered, says PHC

CJ Dost Muhammad Khan said security agencies have cooperated with court to resolve the issue.

PESHAWAR:

With the International Enforced Disappearance Day set to be observed on Thursday (today), the relatives of missing persons in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) perhaps have something to cheer about. Security agencies are said to have been helping resolve the high profile issue.

Chief Justice (CJ) of Peshawar High Court (PHC) Dost Muhammad Khan on Wednesday said that security agencies, some of whom were alleged to have detained the missing people, were cooperating with the court to resolve cases pertaining to enforced disappearances. He added that missing persons were being recovered safely and were returning home.

He said that around 92 per cent of missing people had returned home and the list of people arrested by the security agencies, provided to the PHC, included details of those released.

Around 524 suspected militants are still being ‘de-radicalised’ at different internment centres. More than 1,100 white category militants (suspects with no charges filed against them) have been freed on heavy surety bonds, after going through the de-radicalisation process.

CJ Khan told a gathering of journalists that security agencies were extending their all-out support and 92 per cent of around 1,000 men arrested from different parts of K-P and the tribal areas had been released.

Keeping in view the PHC’s efforts in the recovery of missing persons, relatives started filing habeas corpus (writ legal action) petitions in the court, hoping that their relatives would be brought before the court. Around 300 such petitions have so far been registered at the PHC.

CJ Khan has worked vigorously to get the security agencies to release those people who have been detained without any charges. He was previously quoted as saying that “Not all, but a few personnel of the security agencies have been involved in picking up people and detaining them illegally,” and asked Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani to look into the matter, as, since these personnel were bringing a bad name to the agencies.

The PHC chief justice also stated that he had been in contact with various donor agencies for the provision of well-equipped centrally controlled prison vehicles, which would help thwart any attack by militants while high-profile prisoners are being escorted to designated locations.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2012.