Missing prisoners’ case: SC again orders spy agencies to reunite prisoners with families

Court told only three of 11 inmates met relatives.

ISLAMABAD: Top spy agencies were directed by the Supreme Court again on Wednesday to ensure that all of the previously missing Adiyala Jail prisoners meet their families.

A three-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, was hearing a case on the disappearance of 11 prisoners from Adiyala Jail, who are now said to be in the custody of intelligence agencies.

Raja Muhammad Irshad, counsel for spy agencies, told the court that in pursuance of the court’s last order, three of the 11 prisoners were allowed some time with their families.

When the court asked him why the remaining inmates were not allowed to meet their relatives, the counsel said that proper arrangements could not be made. The court said that if meetings were not arranged soon, the court will summon the prisoners.

When the spy agencies’ lawyer sought more time to consult the authorities concerned in this regard, the court adjourned the hearing till Thursday (today).

On December 10, the court had directed the counsel for intelligence agencies to arrange a meeting between 11 prisoners of Adiyala Jail and their relatives, after he told the court that the prisoners were under the custody of spy agencies and were being tried under Army Act.

The men were arrested for a rocket attack on the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in Kamra, firing an anti-aircraft missile at a plane carrying former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf and carrying out suicide attacks on a bus of an intelligence agency in Rawalpindi and the main entrance of the GHQ.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2011.