Taking responsibility: SHC rejects police reports on missing persons

The two-judge bench declares it is the state’s responsibility to trace missing persons.

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court (SHC) rejected reports of the police and Rangers regarding the detention of citizens and declared that 'it is the duty of the state to trace the missing people.'

"It is the responsibility of the law enforcement agencies, particularly the police, to trace the missing people," ruled the two-judge bench, while hearing petitions seeking the whereabouts of citizens missing from different parts of the metropolis since several months.

The division bench, comprising justices Naimatullah Phulpoto and Shaukat Ali Memon, directed the Karachi police chief and his subordinate investigation officers to make all possible efforts to recover the missing citizens and produce them in the court of law.

Detention of prayer caps vendor

Mobina Town SHO submitted a progress report during the hearing of a petition seeking the whereabouts of Muhammad Aslam, who has been missing since December 2013.

The officer said that the FIR No. 326/2014, which was registered at his police station for the offence under Section 365 (kidnapping) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), has been disposed of as 'A' class.

Advocate Ayesha Rehman contended that the petitioner's son, Ghulam Qadir, was still missing. Sindh Rangers consultant Advocate Habib Ahmed denied the allegations that the man was detained by the paramilitary force.

The law enforcement agencies' denial of the detainee's custody irked the judges, who directed the East Zone SSP to make all possible efforts to recover the detainee 'well before the next date of hearing'. The hearing was adjourned till May 28.

The petitioner had claimed that his son, who used to sell prayer caps outside a mosque, was taken away by the Rangers from a hotel on Abul Hasan Isphahani Road on December 14, 2013. He has been missing since then, said the petitioner.

He had named the chiefs of the Inter-Services Intelligence, the Military Intelligence, the provincial home secretary, the director-general of Rangers, the CID DIG, East Zone SSP and the Mobina Town police station SHO as respondents.

Missing social worker

DSP Zulfiqar Ali filed a progress report by the South Zone Investigation-II SP regarding the whereabouts of another detainee, Abdul Qadeer.

The officer said the investigation has concluded that neither was the missing person taken away by the police nor by the Rangers. "No such incident has taken place," the DSP stated, rejecting the claim of the detainee's mother.

The bench rejected, however, the police officer's report. "We direct the South Zone Investigation-II SP to make all possible efforts for the recovery of the detainee and produce him on the next date without fail," they warned, adjourning the hearing till May 28.

Qadeer's mother, Bilquees, had taken the defense secretary, the provincial home secretary, the provincial chiefs of the police and Rangers and the Nabi Bux police station SHO to court.

She alleged that Rangers personnel had taken away her son during a raid at her house on the night of May 6, 2013. She maintained that her son was a social worker and was not affiliated with any religious or political group.

CCPO's comments called

The bench also directed the Karachi police chief to submit a comprehensive report regarding steps taken by his force to recover the missing person, Muhammad Qasim Ali Khan. The police chief is required to submit the report by May 28.

The petitioner, Shamim Jahan, had alleged that her son had left his Nazimabad No. 2 residence for work on May 10, 2014, but has not returned since. Apprehensive that he might have been taken away by law enforcers, she pleaded the court order them to determine Khan's whereabouts.

During the proceedings, the police and the Rangers officers filed their replies in which they denied having detained the petitioner's son. Jahan's lawyer contended that her son was missing since the last one year, but there was no clue of his whereabouts.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 10^th, 2015.