Due process: The ‘missing’ prisoners ‘are with the military’

LAHORE:

Lahore High Court on Tuesday made the interior ministry a necessary party in the petitions seeking directives for the Kot Lakhpat jail authorities to let the petitioners meet their seven relatives detained for various murder cases. 

Earlier, an assistant advocate general representing the Home Department and the jail superintendent told the court that five of the seven prisoners, believed to be members of banned outfits and under detention for sectarian killings, had been handed over to military authorities for their trials in a military court.

He said the remaining two, Sheikh Farhan and Hashim Abdullah, were still detained at the Kot Lakhpat jail.

The suspects handed over to the military were identified as Qari Asif Mahmood, Ikramullah, Abdul Rauf Gujjar, Sabir Shah and Rafiullah Khan.

Petitioner Muhammad Rafiq and others had submitted that jail authorities were not allowing them to see their relatives for several weeks now.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 15^th, 2015.