THE mystery of 11 men who had gone 'missing' from Rawalpindi's Adiyala jail in May after being acquitted on charges of terrorism has been solved — to an extent. The men's families had long held that they were in the custody of the intelligence agencies. This allegation turned out to be true on Thursday. The counsel representing Inter-Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence told the Supreme Court during the hearing of a petition against the disappearance that the men were indeed in the agencies' custody and had been 'recovered' from terror camps. He added that they would be tried for allegedly carrying out acts of terror. Only a few days earlier the attorney general had submitted a statement to the apex court on behalf of the agencies stating they did not have custody of the men. The statement perturbed the bench, mainly because it was not signed by the heads of the agencies, and the chief justice asked if these outfits were above the law.

The fact that the Supreme Court put enough pressure for the agencies to reveal the truth about the missing men is commendable. However, the matter should not end there and further explanation should be sought. Questions remain about how the men were picked up despite being acquitted by a trial court as well as about where they were kept. Few will be convinced by the 'terror camp' story. Also, the admission by the agencies raises a bigger question about the fate of other missing persons, such as Baloch nationalists and alleged jihadis. The families of these people have been protesting outside the apex court for several years now, ever since people started 'disappearing' on a large scale during the Musharraf era. The most important issue here is that everyone — guilty or not — has a right to a free and fair trial. That is a requirement for creating a just, democratic society. There is no argument over the fact that those who break the law and indulge in acts of terrorism should be tried and punished. But this must be done within the ambit of the law, not by circumventing it.