On notice: Court seeks report on missing Indian national

Nehal Ansari’s whereabouts have remained unknown for past three years.

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has sought the written replies from Kohat DPO and Military Intelligence in connection with missing Indian national Nehal Hamid Ansari on Tuesday.

Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Muhammad Daud Khan directed the federal and provincial governments to submit the aforementioned reports on the next hearing.

Qazi Muhammad Anwar, counsel for Nehal’s mother Fauzia Ansari, told the court Nehal, an engineer by profession, visited Afghanistan for job prospects back in November 2012. “Since then his whereabouts are not known,” he added. Anwar said Nehal visited Kohat and was staying at a local hotel when police, assisted by Intelligence Bureau officials, arrested him.

“Whoever enters the country should be treated according to the Passports Act 1974. My client is worried by her son’s prolonged absence,” he said.

Upon hearing the arguments, the court directed Additional Advocate General Qaiser Ali Shah to submit the Kohat DPO’s report in light of police reports submitted earlier. The court also ordered the federal government to submit the MI report.

Gone for years

On January 29, reports submitted by the Inter Services Intelligence and interior ministry denied the arrest of Nehal.

The petitioner had earlier submitted an application with the Supreme Court human rights cell. The cell forwarded the case to the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances in March 2014. Pursuing the case, the commission directed the provincial home and tribal affairs department to constitute a JIT in April 2014. An FIR was also registered at Karak City police station under Section 365 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Nehal had left for Afghanistan on November 4, 2012 on a 90-day tourist visa hoping to land a job in the aviation sector. He remained in touch with his family for a week before disappearing.

According to the JIT report, a man going by the name of Hamza reserved a room for one night for Rs300 in Palwasha Hotel in Kohat. He showed he was a resident of Islamabad.

During questioning, the owner and manager of Palwasha Hotel revealed the man claiming to be Hamza left his room sometime after midnight. According to the investigation officer, Nehal Hamid, who was allegedly posing as Hamza, was picked up by a police rider squad and his whereabouts remained unknown since. The JIT was headed by the Karak DPO.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 3^rd, 2015.