Forced disappearance in Balochistan: Police to probe officials involved in abduction

Supreme Court bench heard missing persons’ cases and issued written judgment.

ISLAMABAD:

Security agencies have agreed to hand over to police, those uniformed officers who have been allegedly involved in abduction of citizens in Balochistan, says the written order issued by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, heard the Balochistan law and order situation and missing persons cases this week at the Quetta Registry and issued a written judgment.

Additional Attorney General (AAG) Shah Khawar informed the court that the Frontier Corps (FC) inspector-general had agreed to hand over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) those personnel who were  allegedly involved in forced disappearances and were to be interrogated.

“An FC official, Abdul Waheed, is required to be investigated in the case of Mehrullah Khilji and Major Saif is required in another case for interrogation by the police,” the order mentioned.



The government counsel told the court that he had contacted the Ministry of Defence and had obtained assurance for production of Major Saif before the police.

“Yet another important case of Sami Hussain Anqa s/o Nusrat Hussain Anqa reportedly missing from the year 2009 is required to be investigated as there are allegations against the agencies,” the written order of the court read, adding that “It seems that no effective progress has been made so far in this behalf.” The court has also summoned progress report of this case.

Official figure state that about 60 people have been picked up by the FC and 8-9 people are in the ‘farari camps’. Fresh applications with regard to 5-7 missing people have been submitted and more than 70 persons are not available, the order stated.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 29^th, 2013.