May 31, 2006	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 3, 1427

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HYDERABAD, May 30: The Additional Advocate-General (AAG) Sindh, Masood A. Noorani, on Tuesday informed a division bench of the Sindh High Court that Ali Gohar Arisar had been under preventive detention for two years for espionage and anti-state activities under section 2(1)(d) of the Pakistan Army Act.

Submitting a letter from Lt-Col Khalid Iqbal Sahoo, the AAG said that the letter had been sent to him by federal Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah.

The letter says that in compliance of court orders, comments/verification were sought from intelligence agencies under the control of the ministry of defence regarding whereabouts of detenu Ali Gohar Arisar and in reply to which it was stated that the military intelligence had apprehended suspect Ali Gohar Arisar, son of Mohammad Khan, on December 12, 2005 for his suspected involvement in espionage/anti-state activities under section 2(1)(3) of the Pakistan Army Act.

“During the interrogation, involvement of suspect in espionage/anti-state activities was confirmed and he was recommended for two years preventive detention to sever his contact with hostile intelligence agencies. The Headquarters Corps-5 has taken up the case with the home secretary for approval of preventive detention of the suspect,” the communication said.

Ayaz Latif Palijo, counsel for the petitioner, sought time to go through the letter and submit a reply.

The petitioner said that one Khamiso Rajar worked for agencies and police and he demanded Rs50,000 from him on November 13, 2005, saying since the petitioner was earning money in remote areas, therefore, he must pay him Rs50,000 failing which he would get him implicated in false anti-state cases.

He said that his refusal annoyed him and he said that if he was arrested then he would not be able to come out of prison.

He added that on December 11, 2005 Ali Gohar along with his uncle, Abdullah, son of Manjhi Khan Arisar, and Soomar, son of Rahim, were present at a barber’s shop in Amolakh in Umerkot and Khamiso Rajar, along with three unidentified men, arrived there and inquired about Ali Gohar.

He stated that one of them introduced himself as sub-inspector of an intelligence agency, Field Investigation Unit (FIU) and others were his subordinate staff adding that Khamiso Rajar told Ali Gohar that he would be branded as agent of RAW.

Thereafter, he said, respondents arrested and tortured Ali Gohar and before taking him away he was brought to a private hospital.

When the petitioner came to know about arrest of his son, he approached the FIU office in the Chore Cantonment where his son was taken. He was produced before Major Umer in Hyderabad.