JIT reports are eyewash, no progress made to locate victims: SHC

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of the joint investigation teams (JIT) and the provincial task force for missing persons, observing that no progress had been made to trace the victims and that JIT reports were nothing but eyewash.

Hearing petitions regarding enforced disappearances, an SHC bench headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto said several cases of missing persons have been pending for several years but police and other law-enforcement agencies have failed to recover them. The court directed the relevant DIG and SSP to make efforts to trace the whereabouts of two brothers, Mirza Saud Baig and Mirza Mehmood Baig, who disappeared from Karachi airport and Gulshan-e-Iqbal in April and September 2015 respectively.

The investigation officer said in court that the Intelligence Bureau had informed them that the detainees were not in its custody. In another illegal detention case, the court directed the federal and provincial law officer to file a report on the whereabouts of two brothers who were allegedly picked up by law enforcers from Gulzar-e-Hijri.

Petitioner Ejaz Mehmood submitted that his two sons Farhan and Noman were picked up following the assassination attempt on Muttahida Quami Movement leader Khawaja Izharul Hasan on September 1.

Mehmood said that the detainees were not involved in any criminal activities, and they were being kept in illegal custody because his son Farhan had been in touch with the main accused who lived in the same neighbourhood as them and was killed by the police following the murder attempt.

Similarly, in another case, the court directed the investigation officer to submit a report of the commission regarding the identity of a missing person who is said to have been killed by unidentified people.

According to the investigation officer, the body of Inamuddin, who was missing since January 6, 2015 from Orangi Town, was found dumped in Sohrab Goth.

He added that the finger prints of the body found from Sohrab Goth matched those of Inamuddin. However, his family members say that the deceased is not their brother.  The court directed the investigation officer to submit the report of the commission and adjourned the hearing till November 20.

Conviction set aside

The SHC set aside a trial court’s conviction of two men tried in a case of extortion and illegal weapons possession who had appealed to the high court. An ATC had earlier found Adnan and Salman Khan guilty of demanding extortion from a businessman and sentenced them to 10 years in prison. 

According to the prosecution, the two had demanded Rs5,00,000 as extortion from businessman Imran in Bahadurabad in November 2016 and they were arrested by the police when they came to receive the extortion money. 

However, after going through the evidence and hearing the appeal arguments, the court observed that the prosecution had failed to prove the case against the accused and decided to set aside the trial court’s conviction.