Three more missing persons traced, PHC told

PESHAWAR: Law officers on Friday informed the Peshawar High Court (PHC) that three more missing persons had been traced in the internment centres where they had been declared suspected terrorists. Additional Advocate General (AAG) Qaiser Ali Shah and Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Musarratullah Khan, representing the provincial and federal governments in missing persons’ cases, informed a two-member bench comprising Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Roohul Amin Khan of the three missing persons languishing in internment centres.

In the first habeas corpus petition, the AAG submitted his reply and stated that Abdul Hanan, the missing son of Sughran Bibi, was found in an internment centre and the oversight board had declared him ‘black’, a suspected hardcore militant.

DAG Musarratullah Khan informed the bench that another missing person, Muntazir Khan, was traced to the internment centre in Ghallanai, Mohmand Agency. His father, Ibrahim Khan, had filed a habeas corpus petition in the high court.

The father claimed that his son went missing since his enforced disappearance several years ago. However, he said the oversight board had declared the missing person as ‘grey’, a suspected militant.

Similarly, the AAG stated that Abdul Khaliq was also found in an internment centre and the oversight board had declared him as ‘grey.’ Hundreds of missing persons shifted to internment centres have been declared ‘black’ and some ‘grey.’ The law officers informed the high court that the detainees declared “black” would be tried by the military courts and the grey cases would be re-examined.

The AAG said the military courts had started the trial of black cases, and awarding death sentences to several of them. However, the court again issued notices in the missing persons’ cases to the ministries of defence and interior to submit replies on behalf of secret agencies before April 21, the next hearing in the cases.

The AAG and DAG have sought more time in submission of replies in the enforced disappearance of Ahmad Khan, Khoidad Khan, Sardar Alam and Fakhar Alam. The family members of the missing persons claimed that they went missing after the law-enforcement agencies picked them up for interrogation in terrorism cases.