Missing persons: ‘They should at least be given a trial’

PESHAWAR:

Najma, a resident of Bara Bandai Swat, visited the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday to file an application about her husband Ali Anwar Bacha, who has been missing for over two years.

Ali was allegedly picked up by security forces on December 19, 2009 for interrogation but has yet to return home.

Members of the same family have been targeted by intelligence agencies as well. Najma said her father-in-law, Khaista Bacha, was arrested six months before her husband for similar charges and has been missing since.

“My husband owned a dairy farm,” said Najma, speaking to journalists outside the PHC with her three-year-old daughter. “We were all asleep when security forces raided our house at 1:30am and took him.”

Families of missing persons say that officials take their relatives for interrogation and say they will be returned home within a few days. Najma was told the same. “They should be executed publically if guilty, but they should at least be given a trial,” she said.

Disappearances of people who not normally ‘fit the profile’ of militants are increasing in the area.

Many complain that ‘peace militias’ that are working with security forces also use their position to get personal rivals into trouble, giving their names as militants to security forces.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2012.