Enforced disappearances: Seventh-grader, teenage mechanic incarcerated at internment centres

PHC transfers the case to the bench of CJ Mazhar Alam Miankhel for further action.

PESHAWAR:

A seventh grader and his 17-year-old cousin were picked up with the help of the police in Charsadda in 2011 and later detained at internment centres, the Peshawar High Court learnt on Tuesday.

Justice Malik Manzoor Hussain and Justice Ikramullah Khan were told by Advocate Farahatullah that seventh grader Abdul Basit and his teenage cousin Faiz Muhammad, who had dropped out of school to become a mechanic, were picked up in Charsadda in 2011 by unidentified people helped by the local police.

Farhatullah told the court the two have not been charged of any crime. Basit is being detained at Fort Slope, Khyber Agency while Muhammad is incarcerated at the detention centre in Mohmand Agency.

According to Farhatullah, the policemen involved were from Saro Kalay station in Charsadda.

Deputy Attorney General Manzoor Khan Khalil, Additional Advocate General Waqar Ahmad Khan and Major Muhammad Ali of the Ministry of Defence represented the state in the hearing.

Khalil said an earlier report of the Ministry of Interior denied the whereabouts of these two missing persons while the report of the Ministry of Defence is yet to be submitted.

Justice Ikramullah noted the inconsistency and said, “One report denies that the missing persons are with them and then it is learnt that the persons are detained in an internment centre—which is an offence.”

These habeas corpus petitions are filed to find out the whereabouts of missing relatives of petitioners, said Justice Malik Manzoor, and many of them are interned in internment centres. He added the court will pass an order regarding the charges for which these people are being detained as well as the treatment facilities being provided there.

The bench, which was hearing 17 petitions on enforced disappearances, transferred the cases to the bench of Chief Justice (CJ) Mazhar Alam Miankhel. The CJ will then hear these in detail and pass any order related to the nature of the cases.

The next hearing is set for September 9.

Missing and dead

On August 20, the same bench issued notices to the Kohat internment centre in charge where three members of the same family are said to be detained.

Petitioner Naek Muhmmad Shah’s lawyer Gul Nazir told the court six members of the client’s family—Barkat Shah, Tahir Shah, Bakhtawar Shah, Ismail Shah, Hazrat Shah and Nazar Shah—were picked up by intelligence agencies in 2012.

Nazir added the bodies of three, Barkat, Tahir and Bakhtawar, were handed over to the family while the rest remain in the internment centre in Kohat.

The court then issued notices to the person in charge of the Kohat centre to submit a comprehensive report regarding the three missing persons.

The same day, the bench also issued a show-cause notice to the home and tribal affairs secretary, directing him to appear in court on September 23 for a case regarding enforced disappearances.

The lawyer for the petitioner, Advocate Mohib Jan, had told Justice Manzoor and Justice Ikramullah that Musafar and Arif were allegedly picked up from Haji Camp on July 25, 2011 by intelligence agencies with help from the police.

In the petition, the family had accused ASP Muhammad Faisal of picking up both Musafar, who was a driver, and Arif, a cleaner. They said the two had no links to any militant organisation.

Jan said almost three years later in June 24, 2014 the families learnt the two men were at the Kohat internment centre. Less than a month later, the body of Musafar was handed over to the family without telling them the cause of the death.

The court then ordered the secretary home and tribal affairs to appear in person and issued him a show-cause notice for not submitting the proper reply sought by the court.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 27^th, 2014.