Court orders: Rangers, police asked to submit details on 7 missing persons

Residents have complained of people being detained and their whereabouts being withheld.

KARACHI: As the number of the missing persons in the Sindh High Court (SHC) continues to surge since launch of the targeted operation in Karachi, the judges directed the provincial home secretary and provincial chiefs of the Rangers and police to file their replies on the whereabouts of seven persons alleged detained by them.

On Monday, a division bench, comprising justices Naimatullah Phulpoto and Shaukat Memon, asked the deputy attorney general and the provincial advocate general to file the authorities' replies by the next hearing.

Syed Sadaqat Ali submitted in his petition that the law enforcers had picked up his relative, Syed Maqsood Ali, from the Liaquatabad locality of the city on May 13 but they were not disclosing his whereabouts.

Dost Muhammad Khan alleged that his relatives, Noor Zia and Moeenullah, were taken into custody by the law enforcers from the Quaidabad area of the city on April 16. They are missing since then because the family has not been informed about them, the petitioner added.

Azra Bano also alleged that the law enforcers took away her relative, Muhammad Siddique, from Malir area on May 1, but his whereabouts are not being disclosed since them.

Sarwari Begum stated her petition that her relative, Abdul Hameed Qureshi, was taken into custody by the law enforcers from Jamshed Road on May 14 and they had not divulged information about him since then.

Zeenat Jahan, a resident of North Karachi, blamed the law enforcement agencies personnel of having detained her relative, Syed Faraz Mustafa Rizvi, on May 6. However, there was no information regarding the detainee.

Taj Muhammad stated that the personnel of the Sindh police's Crime Investigation Department (CID) took into custody his relative, Akhtar Jan, from Baloch Colony on January 25, but refused to give information about the detainee.

The lawyers representing the petitioners argued that since the detainees had no involvement in any criminal or anti-social activity, thus their detention by the law enforcers for long time was a negation of the constitutional provisions concerning personal freedom.

They pleaded the court direct the relevant law enforcement agencies to produce the detainees in the courts of law, if there was any criminal case against them.

The bench issued notices with direction to the federal and provincial law officers to submit reports of the home secretary, the Rangers DG, the police IG and the station house officers of the relevant police stations by the next hearing.

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