Three ‘missing’ men killed in police encounters, SHC told

Three of the missing persons were killed in a police encounter, the counsels representing the families of the deceased informed the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday.

Mehmooda Khatoon, Marium Khatoon and Syeda Tamseel Fatima Rizvi had challenged the detention of Naveed Kamal, Yasin and Mohammad Arif allegedly by personnel of the law enforcement agencies.

Mehmooda and Marium submitted that Kamal and Yasin were picked up by personnel of the law enforcement agencies on January 2, 2016 and November 27, 2015 from Korangi Industrial Area and Quaidabad, and since then their whereabouts were unknown.

They submitted that according to some media reports, the home department had announced a reward for their arrest, but they were not produced before any court of law.

The counsel of the petitioners informed the court that the detainees had been killed in a police encounter and sought time to file an affidavit in this regard.

Tamseel’s counsel informed the court that Arif, an assistant superintendent of Pakistan Post, was killed in a police encounter as well and that he would file an affidavit in this regard.

He claimed that the detainee was picked up by personnel of the law enforcement agencies on February 2 from Aram Bagh.

 

MQM worker

In the “detention” case of a Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) worker, who was allegedly trained by the Indian spy agency Research & Analysis Wing, commonly known as RAW, the court directed the jail authorities to submit the recordings of the CCTV cameras installed inside and outside the prison.

Petitioner Najma submitted that an anti-terrorism court had acquitted her husband Tahir of charges of possession of an illegal weapon and he was released from the Central Jail Karachi on October 24 last year, but he was later allegedly picked up again by personnel of the law enforcement agencies.

She sought protection for and safe recovery of her spouse and requested the court to direct the police and other law enforcement and security agencies to recover the detainee and produce him in court.

The petitioner, however, submitted that the IG prison or the SSP central prison should be held responsible, as the detainee was “abducted” from the jail premises.

Rangers’ counsel filed comments on the petition, denying arrest or detention of the detainees, adding that no soldier of the paramilitary force was deployed at the central prison.

The counsel of the petitioner submitted that CCTV camera footage be sent for and examined to verify the fact.

The SHC division bench headed by Justice Syed Mohammad Farooq Shah directed the jail authorities to submit the footage on the next date of hearing.

Former Malir SSP Rao Anwar had claimed that the police had arrested Tahir along with Junaid Mama on April 30 last year, saying that the suspects were affiliated with the MQM and had been trained in India.

The police officer had claimed that the suspects had admitted to all the accusations and had expressed remorse over their actions.

The court also issued notices to the federal and provincial law officers, the law enforcement and security agencies, and others to file comments on the petition against “illegal” detention of citizens.

The SHC was also informed that Rizwan Ahmed and Rehmatullah were picked up by personnel of the law enforcement agencies from Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Mauripur, and their whereabouts were still unknown.

The bench expressed dissatisfaction over the joint investigation and provincial task force’s reports submitted in the missing persons’ case and directed the government to expedite the efforts for recovering citizens who had been missing for a couple of years.

The court observed that the provincial task force’s meetings would be useless if the missing citizens remained unrecovered.