Illegal detention: SHC wants to know Karachi operation’s mechanism

Court hears petition seeking recovery of man missing for a year now.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has ordered the federal government to furnish details of the search operations being conducted by the law enforcement agencies in Karachi, including its legal sanctions and the number of arrested or missing suspects .

A division bench, headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, sought these details during the hearing of a petition, seeking the recovery of a man, Arshad, son of Fakhruddin, who is missing for almost a year now.

The petitioner’s lawyer said that the alleged detainee was picked up by the police and Rangers officials in the presence of witnesses. On the direction of the court, an FIR No. 121/2013 was registered against the officials. No progress has, however, been made nor has any action been taken against the delinquent officials.

On the court’s notice, Garden police station sub-inspector Shahbaz submitted a report on the missing person. The judges noted that no efforts had been made by the respondents to trace the whereabouts of the alleged detainee.

SI Shahbaz said that the FIR registered against the police and Rangers officials was duly investigated and the report, under Section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), was submitted before the judicial magistrate-XII, district South, Karachi, for disposal in ‘A’ class. According to him, the report was approved on August 24, 2013.

The two judges directed the federal and provincial law enforcing agencies to trace the alleged detainee, which they observed, was the responsibility of the law enforcement agencies.

Future cautions

The judges also directed the Karachi police chief and the Rangers DG to look into cases of missing persons with “extra care and caution, as there were a number of complaints and FIRs against law enforcement agencies regarding illegal arrests and detentions”.

They ordered that “all possible efforts be made to trace the whereabouts of such alleged missing persons, who shall be produced before the court, whereas.” In the current case, they ordered that the whereabouts of Arshad, son of Fakhruddin, be traced immediately and that he be produced before the court on the next hearing.

“We would also like to know the mechanism by which law enforcing agencies are conducting mass raids in different areas of the city, with details, including the legal sanction for conducting such raids and arrests, the number of law enforcing agencies who conduct raids and also details of the persons who are apprehended during such raids,” remarked one of the judges.

The bench also summoned the focal person of the law enforcing agencies, who may be familiar with the entire operation, to attend the court on June 26.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 6^th, 2014.