SHC decries police’s failure to find girl abducted seven years ago

The Sindh High Court on Thursday took notice over the police’s failure to recover a girl who was kidnapped seven years ago from Karachi’s Quaidabad area and directed the SSP East to submit a progress report within 15 days.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Abdul Haleem whose daughter, Maryum, was five years old at the time of her abduction. The court took exception over the investigation officer’s poor performance and observed that no substantial progress had been made despite lapse of seven years.

The petitioner said his daughter was abducted on April 7, 2011 from Landhi area the police were not making serious efforts for her recovery. On the other hand, the SSP East submitted that the case investigation had earlier been transferred to the Anti-Violent Crime Cell, but now the case had again been handed over to the Quaidabad police. He assured the court that all possible efforts would be made to recover the abducted girl. The court directed the SSP East to submit a progress report on March 5.

Detention cases

In another detention case, the court directed the Sindh IGP to conduct an inquiry into the alleged murder of a detainee by the Nawabshah police and submit a report within one month.

The petitioner submitted that his son, Abdul Jabbar Talpur, was picked up by the Nawabshah police two years back. The petitioner said he feared that his son had been killed in a fake police encounter.

The court was informed that a joint investigation team had been constituted to trace the detainee’s whereabouts but no progress had been made so far. The court directed the Sindh IG to look into the matter and conduct an inquiry into the petitioner’s allegations and submit the report by March 8.

The court, meanwhile, issued notices to the federal and provincial law officers on petitions filed against extrajudicial detention of citizens, including two brothers, allegedly by law enforcement agencies.

The petitioners submitted that Mohammad Ilyas, Mohammad Ali, Mumtaz Hussain, Mehtab and others had been picked up by law enforcement agencies from Rizvia society, North Karachi and other areas of Karachi but their whereabouts were still unknown. They said neither the police was disclosing their whereabouts nor they were being produced before a court of law. The court was requested to direct the police and the law enforcement agencies to produce the detainees before the court and release them if not required in any cases.