Missing man: Woman claims husband in illegal custody

Submits petition at Islamabad High Court

ISLAMABAD: A petition seeking the recovery of a key suspect in two high-profile murder cases was filed before the Islamabad High Court on Monday.

Zainab Khan, the wife of Abdullah Omar, who was booked in the murder case of minorities federal minister Shahbaz Bhatti and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Special Prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali, filed the petition seeking her husband’s recovery.

The case is fixed before Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui today.

Khan has made Industrial Area SHO, Islamabad IGP, interior secretary and the director-general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) as respondents.

In the petition, Khan has stated that Omar along with three others — Hammad Dadan, Ammar Dadan and Ahmad Bashir — went to Masjid Imam Abu Daud near the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences for Taraweeh prayers on June 20 and were allegedly taken away by men belonging to an ‘intelligence agency.’

Bashir, who was left behind, along with residents of the area and a number of policemen present at the spot from where they alleged abduction took place informed that Omar, Hammad and Ammar were taken away by armed men of an intelligence agency, the petitioner added.

Hammad, alleged to have been in illegal detention of an agency, returned home on August 5.

Hammad’s father had approached the IHC for the production of his son and during pendency of the petition, the respondents released Hammad and Ammar, stated the petition. “After this there is no doubt in any manner whatsoever that the husband of the petitioner is in illegal and improper custody of the respondents,” she stated.

Omar was paralysed from leg down after he was shot and injured on May 3, 2013 during the alleged target killing of the FIA prosecutor.

It was reported that Omar was shot and injured by the prosecutor’s gunman and was later arrested from a hospital. He was released on bail in July last year on medical grounds.

Omar is pursuing LLB Honors in Sharia & Law from the Islamic university.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2015.