PESHAWAR, Sept 17: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday rejected a Defence Ministry report, which expressed ignorance about the whereabouts of a large number of missing persons, and directed the defence secretary to constitute an inquiry board to inspect the detention facilities maintained by the security forces and intelligence agencies.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Nisar Hussain observed that in the past, several such cases had surfaced when the secret agencies had expressed ignorance about detainees and they were later recovered from their custody.

The directives were issued during the hearing into around 250 habeas corpus petitions about enforced disappearances.

The bench observed that it considered it appropriate to direct the Defence Ministry through its secretary to constitute an inquiry/investigation board, which should visit all detention centres maintained by security forces and Frontier Corps. It ordered the provincial chief secretary to task a senior most officer with cooperating and coordinating with the inquiry board.

The bench directed the additional Fata chief secretary to detail the secretary (security) for the help of the board and observed that they should jointly inspect all detention centres in tribal areas and after thorough investigation submit a comprehensive report about detainees, which must be supported by affidavits by the secretary and chairman of the investigation board.

The bench later fixed Oct 24 for next hearing of these cases.

When the court took up for hearing these cases the deputy attorney general, Muzamil Khan, submitted list of five detainees saying they had been shifted to notified internment centres.

He said except those five detainees, the Defence Ministry had shown ignorance about rest of the missing persons in these cases because field commanders communicated to them that they were not held by them. He said the ground check was still in progress.

The bench observed that it was a matter of record that in vast majority of cases, relatives of missing persons categorically stated on oath that detainees were picked up and whisked away by police and agencies in their presence and since then they had been missing.

It observed that it had come on record in some cases that detainees about whom similar denials were made were released by respondents, including intelligence agencies and security forces, and when reached home they said majority of detainees were seen by them in custody of security agencies and forces in detention centres run by them.

In this light, it added, the reply of the Defence Ministry based on information given by field commanders did not appear plausible and convincing more so in the past, despite denial such missing persons recovered from their custody.

Meanwhile, in two cases of missing persons in which three of the detainees were later found dead, the court issued directives to the federal and provincial governments to pay compensation to their legal heirs concerned.

In one of the cases, petitioner Yousaf Khan claimed that his son, Amjid Ali, and his maternal uncle, Said Khan, both residents of Adezai area, were taken away by police from Peshawar Ring Road in Dec 2011 and later on they were handed over to the tribal administration of Khyber Agency. He alleged that in Nov 2012, they received information that bodies of the two detainees were dumped in a water course in Khyber Agency.

A special prosecutor of tribal administration informed the bench that the bodies were found in Akakhel area where a military operation was in progress.

He said they might have been killed during the operation and that the local police had claimed that they were outlaws.

The bench observed that without any trial or inquiry, how the deceased could be dubbed as miscreants. It directed the prosecutor to convey to the administration to pay compensation to the legal heirs.

Similarly, in another case, Farhat Khan, lawyer for woman Gul Sanga, said her husband, Shaukat, and brother-in-law Sardar Ali were taken into custody by the law-enforcement agencies in Aug 2010.

He added that a few weeks ago, the body of Sardar Ali was handed over to the family by the security forces in Kohat.

The lawyer said his client’s concern was about the life and safety of Shaukat and that she wanted that her husband should not be harmed by security forces.

When the bench inquired whether autopsy of the deceased was carried out, the lawyer replied in negative. The bench observed that it could not be said with certainty whether the deceased had died a natural death or of torture or starvation.

It directed the deputy attorney general to make arrangement for payment of compensation to the legal heirs of the deceased, observing protecting life and property of an individual was responsibility of the government.

Similarly, in another petition, the bench summoned the in charge of Judge Advocate General Branch, Brigadier Nau Bahar asking him to provide details of the killing of a missing person in an alleged encounter while trying to escape from the custody of an intelligence agency.

The detainee, Abdul Samad, was killed along with two other suspects in an alleged encounter with the security forces in Peshawar Cantonment on Aug 7, 2012.

The bench observed that father of the deceased, Haji Mir Rehman, had earlier filed a petition and the security forces had expressed ignorance about his detention.

The bench observed that apparently he was in illegal detention.