September 22, 2007	Saturday	Ramazan 09, 1428

RAWALPINDI, Sept 21: The Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench here on Friday served a notice on the Adiala Jail superintendent, ordering him to submit his comments and relevant record in the case of a Kashmiri man allegedly detained in the prison for the last one year.

LHC Judge Justice Syed Sajjad Hussain Shah directed the jail superintendent to apprise the court of the whereabouts of Azizur Rehman who, according to a petitioner Bashir Ahmed Paswal, had migrated to Pakistan from Indian-controlled Kashmir along with thousands of other people due to the maltreatment on the part of Indian forces.

The petitioner said on his arrival Mr Rehman was arrested by Pakistani authorities, who detained him in Adiala jail under the Security Act of Pakistan.

The government got extended his detention orders from time to time through Federal Review Board. The family of the detainee has moved many applications for his release but in vain.

The petitioner, who is an uncle of the missing person, stated that on August 30, the review board refused to extend the detention orders of Mr Rehman and directed the authorities concerned to release him.

However, the detainee has not been released. The jail superintendent says that he is being detained on the orders of the Punjab home department, and that he will be sent back to Indian-held Kashmir.

The applicant pleaded to the court that the jail authorities be directed to release Mr Rehman and shift him to the Refugee Camp in Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir, where other members of his family were living with identity cards issued by the National database and Registration Authority.

He said Mr Rehman should not be sent back to Indian Kashmir where he would either be killed or imprisoned for life. The petitioner also cited the examples of many other cases where the LHC ordered the shifting of migrants to refugee camps.