PHC disposes of case of missing person killed by Punjab police

Bench says family can get FIR registered against suspects

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday disposed of a case of missing person from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and killed in a police encounter in Punjab’s Raiwind area with the direction that the parents would be at liberty to get registered a first information report of the youth murder against the suspects.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Muhammad Ibrahim Khan disposed of the writ petition after receiving record of the case from the Punjab police.

Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Musarratullah produced the Punjab police record about the case. It was claimed that the missing son of the petitioner had been killed in a police encounter at Raiwind area of Punjab as he was a terrorist.

The law officer submitted that the record showed that it was not a fake encounter and he was killed while challenging the police. On the previous hearing, the court had ordered to ensure the submission of the post-mortem report and relevant record from the Punjab government before the next date of the hearing.

The directions were issued as the enforced disappearance case of Khan Wahid had 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 at Raiwind town near Lahore 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 at 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 had 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.