ISLAMABAD, Dec 15: A complainant, whose relative is still to be found, told the Supreme Court on Friday that the people who were missing earlier and who had supposedly been released following the apex court's intervention were in fact in the army’s custody.

A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad has taken up the matter on the application of Mrs Amina Masood Janjua. The application pertains to 28 missing people, including her husband, whose unexplained incarceration for many years is believed to have been caused by their suspected links with the Al-Qaeda or banned militant organisations.

Since then the aggrieved families have taken to streets, staging protest demonstrations in front of the Parliament House, the Supreme Court, offices of different human rights organisations, besides holding meetings with ministers and other government high-ups.

On Friday, Mrs Amina requested the court to directly issue instructions to the army for the release of the missing people because it was a general feeling among the families of the missing people that the interior ministry was helpless even though it was putting lot of efforts to locate the whereabouts of the disappeared persons.

However, the chief justice observed that the court would operate through its law officer and directed Deputy Attorney-General Nasir Saeed Sheikh to contact representatives of the Military Intelligence (MI), Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) for tracing the whereabouts of the people who had gone missing mysteriously. The DAG is free to seek the assistance of the interior secretary if need be, the court said.

The court was informed that three more persons out of the remaining 21 had been traced. They are Mohammad Saleem Baloch, Abdul Rauf Sasoli and Mohammad Saeed Brohi.

At the last hearing, the DAG had informed the court that 20 persons out of a total of 41 people had been traced. Now 18 more people are still to be found by the government out of the list provided by Mrs Amina.

On affidavits, which the court had directed to get from those released, who have claimed to see other missing people in the custody of the security agencies, Mrs Amina stated that these people were reluctant to give such affidavits on the apprehensions that they might be persecuted again by the security agencies.

At this, the chief justice ordered the concerned authorities not to take any kind of adverse action against those persons who were assisting the court and directed the police to provide protection to them.

When the complainant tried to submit another list of missing people, the chief justice asked the lady to focus on her earlier application and observed that she should not hurry since the court was making progress and adjourned the hearing for January 8.