Illegal detention: SHC seeks comments about missing MQM activists

Officials disclose that three men had been arrested for involvement in criminal activities.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday directed the police authorities to submit comments about the whereabouts of eleven missing Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) workers, while the officials disclosed that three men had been arrested for involvement in criminal activities.

A division bench, headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto, gave these directives while hearing various petitions seeking the recovery of workers who had allegedly been detained illegally by the police and Rangers from different parts of the metropolis.

During Friday's proceedings, the police officials shared the details of three detainees, Faizan, Rizwan and Irfan, claiming that they were involved in criminal activities and cases had been registered against them at the respective police stations. The relatives of these three men had taken the police, the Rangers and other authorities to court, accusing them of unlawfully detaining the men.

Meanwhile, other petitioners also alleged that the law enforcers had picked up their relatives on different occasions during the last four months but neither were their arrests shown nor were their whereabouts disclosed.

The petitioners argued that their relatives had been in illegal custody for weeks, which was a violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution. The court was pleaded to order the law enforcers to produce the detainees in the courts of law.

The judges directed the officials to file reports on the progress in the cases of the missing persons by the next date of hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2015.