PHC again directs Punjab secretary to produce record

‘Police encounter’

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday once again directed the secretary of Home Department, Punjab to produce record and post-mortem report about the killing of a missing person from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in an alleged police encounter in Punjab’s Raiwind area.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth directed additional advocate general, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mujahid Ali to ensure submission of the post-mortem report and relevant record from the Punjab government before the next date of hearing.

In the previous hearing, the PHC had directed secretary Home Department, Punjab, to produce the record and post-mortem report.

The directions were issued as the enforced disappearance case of Khan Wahid has been pending with the court for months. Khalid Anwar, lawyer for Mohammad Ismail, informed the court that Khan Wahid was killed by the Punjab Police in a fake encounter in Raiwind after declaring him a member of al-Qaeda. He said the Punjab Police were not giving the post-mortem report of the slain student to his family.

The bench was hearing a habeas corpus petition filed last year by Mohammad Ismail to challenge the alleged illegal detention of his son Khan Wahid.

Mohammad Ismail claimed in the petition that his son Khan Wahid was a student of B.Com at a local college. His lawyer informed the bench that the Punjab Police on March 30, 2016 claimed that they had killed five terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda when a team of the Crime Investigation Agency raided a house in Raiwind.

The Punjab Police had alleged that the cops came under fire from the terrorists, who were killed when the police returned the fire. They claimed the deceased were involved in acts of subversion.

However, the lawyer said that on May 5, 2015 a large number of law-enforcers raided the house of the petitioner in Afridi Garhi in Peshawar and took away Khan Wahid. The lawyer said the petitioner had filed the petition last year and feared that his son might be killed in custody.

He added that the apprehensions of the petitioner proved correct. The lawyer said his client had stated that hands of his son were tied when he was killed.

Deputy Attorney General Musarratullah Khan submitted a reply on behalf of the federal government, saying the matter involved two provinces and the federal government had nothing to do with it.However, both the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments did not submit replies and post-mortem report of the case.