PHC orders officials to explain detention of three citizens

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday directed the political agent of the Kurram Agency and superintendent Kohat prison to appear in person at the next hearing and explain the detention of three persons allegedly picked up by the political authorities from the provincial capital.
A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and
Justice Muhammad Daud Khan directed the Kurram Agency political agent and superintendent Kohat prison to explain as to why and on what charges the three citizens have been detained for nine months without informing their family members.
The bench also directed the respondent officials to submit the record on the detention of the citizens at the next hearing. The bench issued the directives in a petition filed by one Said Aziz, claiming that the political authorities of Kurram Agency had picked up his three relatives Muhammad Khalid, Abdul Wahid and Jalal from Warsak Road in Peshawar some nine months back.
He said his relatives were recently found to be detained at the Kohat prison.The petitioner’s lawyer submitted that the political authorities unlawfully picked up the citizens and kept them in illegal detention.
Meanwhile, the bench disposed of the cases of two missing persons after
the oversight board declared them black or hardcore militants.In the first case, the oversight board declared Usman a hardcore militant. Rahima Bibi, mother of the detainee, had filed the petition for his safe recovery.
However, he was shifted to an internment centre in Kohat, where he was
declared militant and he would face trial on terrorism charges. The bench directed the in-charge of the internment centre to provide better healthcare facilities to the detainee after his mother complained that her son was ill and in poor health.
In the second case, the oversight board declared one Muhammad Hayat as hardcore militant. Awarjana Bibi, mother of the detainee, had first filed a petition in the high court to know about the whereabouts of her missing son. He was later shifted to the internment centre in Kohat.
The court informed the two women that the cases of their sons had been disposed of as they were charged with terrorism and would face trial. However, the bench asked them that they had the right to meet their sons at the internment centre.
In another case, the bench directed the commissioner Peshawar to submit a report about a detainee Bilal who had been shifted to internment centre at the Fort Salop in Khyber Agency. The bench directed the commissioner to arrange the meeting of the detainee with his father Habibullah at the internment centre. The bench also directed the political agent Mohmand Agency to submit reply in a petition of Ahmad Ghani, seeking whereabouts of his missing son Ghani Rehman.