May 12 suspect: SHC issues notices to Rangers, police, jail chiefs

Suspect Rafique’s wife accuses law enforcers of detaining him illegally

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Sindh Rangers director-general (DG), Sindh IG and Karachi Central Jail superintendent on a petition against the detention of suspect Abdul Rafique in connection with the May 12 carnage in the city.

A division bench headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto also issued notices to the deputy attorney general (DAG) and the advocate general (AG) to file comments by February 27.

Last month, law enforcers had claimed to have tracked down one of the suspects of the carnage in 2007, when more than 50 political workers were killed in armed clashes during the visit of then-deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry.

On Wednesday, Parveen Akhtar, the wife of the detainee, took the law enforcement agencies to court, accusing them of detaining him illegally. The petitioner claimed that Rangers personnel raided her house in Mehmoodabad Block 3 on February 7, taking away Rafique, 41, to an unknown location.

The detainee’s family members later approached Rangers authorities to seek information of his whereabouts but the officials refused to share any information. Akhtar said that the Rangers presented Rafique in court the following day, obtaining custody of him for 90 days.

She said that her husband was kept under preventive detention in Karachi Central Jail, where she went to meet him on February 13 but was turned away by the jail authorities. “This is a violation of the petitioner’s fundamental rights,” argued her lawyer, Mumtaz Khan.

Khan pleaded the court declare Rafique’s detention illegal since he had no criminal history.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2015.