Enforced disappearances: PHC puts defence, interior ministries on notice

Tells officials concerned to contact field commanders, submit reply on April 25.

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday issued notices to the federal ministries of defence and interior, seeking their response to allegations levelled against them of illegally detaining people.

A division bench comprising PHC Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Abdul Latif Khan issued the notices while hearing two different applications filed by the PHC Human Rights Directorate. The applications were forwarded to the PHC and later converted into writ petitions.

The bench was informed 17-year-old Hazrat Nabi and 16-year-old Qamar Ali Shah, students of 8th and 9th grade, respectively, had been visiting Kanju, tehsil Matta, Swat and went missing when the military operation was launched in Swat in 2009.

The families of both boys say they have not been able to contact them for the last four years and allege security agencies picked them up and shifted them to an undisclosed location.



Apart from issuing notices, the bench also directed the ministries to contact field commanders of the armed forces and security agencies to inquire on the whereabouts of the missing persons, stating the reply should be submitted to the court on April 25.

While hearing a similar case filed by Mastana Bibi, the court issued the same directions after Bibi informed the bench her son Zali Maan Shah and grandsons Shakil Khan and Rehmatullah were allegedly picked up by security agencies from Kohat in 2011.



Bibi said her family belongs to Ghaljo, Orakzai Agency, but had to migrate because of the ongoing military operation against militants there.

“Our house was destroyed twice by militants in Orakzai. Later on, some unidentified armed men shot at my son in Kohat,” she said, wondering aloud why her son and grandsons would be targeted by their own men had they been militants.

Hearings for around 17 other writ petitions filed by relatives of missing persons were also adjourned for April 25.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th, 2013.