Pending petitions: PHC seeks information about 198 missing persons

Committee to determine which ‘militants’ should be prosecuted.

PESHAWAR: Although many cases of missing persons are being resolved, a large number of unaddressed petitions filed by relatives are still pending.

Approximately 198 missing persons have neither returned home nor have been found in internment centres created all over the province to ‘de-radicalise’ suspected militants.

When the Peshawar High Court (PHC) did not receive information on the 198 missing persons, it asked Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa home and tribal affairs department officials to inform the court about the whereabouts of the remaining missing persons.

Department officials told The Express Tribune that the PHC has asked for details of about 157 unaddressed habeas corpus petitions. Officials also said that around nine people had been shifted to internment centres and that this information had been sent to the court.

Official figures state that around 1,035 persons have been released after undergoing the de-radicalisation process. One hundred and thirty-two more people currently held at the Malakand internment centre will be released in second the week of September. With the release of these ‘white-category’ militants, the total number of people to have been released will reach 1,167.

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