Enforced disappearance: Missing man not in ISI custody, IHC informed

Nisar Ahmed was allegedly picked up by FIA from airport on June 1

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) was informed on Thursday that a man allegedly picked up from Benazir Bhutto airport was not in the custody of a premier security agency.

Deputy Attorney-General (DAG) Syed Hasnain Ibrahim Kazmi told the court that the missing man was not in the custody of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

For obtaining a reply from the Military Intelligence (MI), in the case, the deputy attorney sought four week’s time.

The court accepted the request and adjourned hearing in the case till August 11.

At the previous hearing, the court had directed the DAG to submit a report about Nisar Ahmed who was allegedly picked up by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) from the airport on June 1.

The man, a resident of Swat, along with his wife, mother and six children arrived at the airport from Qatar after eight years.

He was later handed over to an intelligence agency for “being the brother of a militant”, claimed his counsel Muhammad Zafar Iqbal Zafar.

Dilshad Begum filed a petition in the IHC claiming the FIA had detained her husband as his name was on the exit control list (ECL), making the interior secretary, FIA director general, an SHO, defence secretary and directors-general of the ISI and MI as respondents in the case.

The copies of the passports of the family members submitted before the court along with the petition carry expiry date as April 28 and earlier dates.

In the petition, Dilshad stated that her family was kept at the airport for the whole day and the FIA officials allowed them to go home and kept Ahmed in custody saying he would be released in a day or two after necessary investigation.

Next day, when the family approached them, the FIA officials told the petitioner her husband was now in the custody of the ISI for further inquiry and will be released in a couple of days.

On June 5, the officials of the agency brought Ahmed to his home in Swat for a meeting with the family and assured them that he would be released in three to four days after completion of inquiry, Dilshad stated in the petition.

After four days, Zafar said, Ahmed’s elder son got a call from an agency official saying his father would be released only after he produces one of his uncles, identified as Ishaque, before them.

The petition also revealed that Dilshad submitted an appeal before Commander 11th Corps for the release of her husband but there has been no response from the army.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 17^th, 2015.