ISLAMABAD: Chairperson of Defence of Human Rights Amina Masood Janjua filed in the Supreme Court on Wednesday a petition seeking constitution of a high-powered commission to investigate what she called mysterious death of “98 enforced disappeared persons”.

In her four-page petition, Ms Janjua also requested the court to order that the people involved in killing these missing persons be brought to book. The commission so formed should be asked to visit internment centres and come up with facts about the “mysterious conditions” prevailing there.

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Ms Janjua said she became aware of a number of alleged deaths of missing persons detained in different internment centres set up under the Action in Aid of Civil Power Regulations 2011.

She claimed that the details of deaths she had collected from different sources showed a new trend apart from those tortured and bullet-riddled bodies found in different areas in the past.

In the petition, Ms Janjua provided details about three victims.

Gul Faqir, son of Issa Khan, disappeared on Aug 12, 2011, but surfaced as a detained person at the Kohat internment centre after a petition was filed in the Supreme Court. In July this year, his tortured body was handed over to his family. His smashed head was quite visible, with ears and mouth bleeding.

Hafiz Mohammad Jamil, son of Jalal Khan, was abducted on Jan 18, 2011. Because of the court’s intervention it later transpired that he had been kept at the Kohat internment centre. His body was handed over to his family on July 13 this year. The family was threatened with dire consequences if they insisted on post-mortem.

Hammad Amir, son of Amir bin Mehmood, was arrested by police from his house on Nov 17, 2009. He was found to be detained at the Kohat centre after the court’s intervention. His body was handed over to his family on Aug 24 this year, with explicit instructions not to insist on post-mortem.

Ms Janjua said she had also filed a petition last year highlighting the pathetic condition of the internment centres and sought an order for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor and Commandant 11 Corps Peshawar to immediately make arrangements and facilitate meetings between the inmates and their family members. But the petition was still pending before the court, she regretted.

The petition had also requested the court to direct the authorities of internment centres to proceed in accordance with the law, abstain from torturing the accused and charge them under cognisable offence to be tried in a civil court at the earliest.

Moreover, the court should also order the authorities to immediately release people who are innocent.

Published in Dawn, November 6th , 2014