Enforced disappearances: PHC seeks report on detainee’s death

Two men were also picked up over their brother’s involvement with banned group LI

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) directed the provincial government on Thursday to provide information about a detainee who died and another one who is still being held in an internment centre in Kohat. The detainees were allegedly picked up by security forces and had been missing for years.

Petitioner Mian Ajab informed the division bench of Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Ikramullah Khan that his father Ghaib and brother Bismillah Khan had been arrested in Peshawar on September 8, 2012 while they were living there as internally displaced persons (IDP). According to the petitioner, they had only been allowed to meet their families this year even though Ghaib and Bismillah had been detained before Ramazan 2012. Some days after the meeting, the body of Bismillah was handed over to them. Mian Ajab also informed the division bench his father is critically ill.

The court ordered Additional Advocate General Waqar Ahmad Khan—who was present in court—to provide a detailed report explaining the cause of death. Furthermore, the PHC also ordered him to submit a report regarding the medical facilities being provided to the petitioner’s father.

The court also heard a petition regarding two brothers, Syed Nazeem and Sajjad, who had been picked up by security agencies from Khyber Agency.

According to the petitioner, they were taken into custody because their other brother is a commander of the banned militant outfit, Lashkar-e-Islam.

The chief justice said the brothers should not have been detained and the actual culprit should have been taken into custody. He ordered Iqbal Durrani, counsel for Khyber Agency’s political administration, to produce a complete record of the case and assist the court in the matter.

In yet another missing persons’ case, Advocate Liaquat Ali informed the court the brothers of his client—Ali Rehman and Sajid Ali—were handed over to the security forces by a jirga on August 28, 2009. Sajid is currently detained in Lakki Marwat while Ali is in a centre in Besham. The family has not been allowed to meet them.

The bench ordered the relevant officials to allow the detainee to meet their family.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 12^th, 2014.