05/10/2011: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday issued order for registration of first information report (FIR) against station house officer (SHO) in a missing person case. A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel issued directives to Akora Khattak Police Station in Nowshera district to register FIR against the then SHO Ajmir Shah. Deputy Attorney General Muhammad Iqbal Mohmand submitted replies from both the Inter-services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI), in which they expressed their ignorance about the whereabouts of the missing boy. The chief justice had taken suo motu notice of the disappearance of Sher Baz and converted an application by the couple into a habeas corpus petition. The elderly couple, Zari Baz and his wife Irshad Begum, are regular visitors of the PHC and are pursuing the case concerning the detention of their son, Sher Baz.
They said that Sher Baz was 18 years old when taken away by a raiding team, headed by the SHO of Akora Khattak Police Station, over a year ago.
During hearing of the case, parents of a missing young man stated that one of their daughters had died while another one was suffering from mental ailment following continuous `illegal detention` of their son.
The SHO Ajmir Shah expressed ignorance about the detainee and claimed that though he was wanted in different cases, they had not arrested him. The couple feared that their son might have been killed by the SHO. However, they said that at least they should be informed about the fate of their son. “My son was never involved in any anti-social activity,” Irshad Begum said, adding, he had a horse cart and was the sole bread earner for the family.
Zari Baz, father of the missing boy, said that Ajmir Shah had raided his residence at Khaliqabad with a police contingent. He said that two other persons, Taus Khan and Kamal, were also taken away along with his son, but they were set free after few days.
He added that for 11 days, his son was kept at the Akora Khattak Police Station and after that his whereabouts were not known. Another PHC bench comprising Justice Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Nisar Hussain Khan summoned joint secretary, Interior, from Islamabad on October 25 in another missing persons case.
Sherzada of Gulibagh area in Mardan district informed the division bench that the intelligence agencies had freed his son, Zahid Khan, some two weeks back, while his second son, Sufaid, was still in the agencies’ illegal detention. He said that on January 11, 2011 local police picked his two sons from the house and shifted them to Mardan District Prison, wherefrom they went missing.
The DAG informed the bench that both the ISI and MI had submitted their replies and showed ignorance about whereabouts of the missing persons. The bench issued notice to Inspector General (IG) Frontier Corps and FIA to submit their replies in the missing persons’ case on the next hearing. (THE NEWS INT’L, ISLAMABAD)
