HYDERABAD: The joint investigation team formed by Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court to locate whereabouts of a ‘missing person’, Khadim Hussain Arijo, submitted its report on Thursday, which declared it a case of ‘enforced disappearance’.

The petitioner’s counsel Ali Palh advocate dismissed the JIT’s report and another report on missing persons by the provincial task force (PTF) as stereotypical and unsubstantial.

He proposed the court make inspector Siraj Lashari part of the investigation as he was an experienced police officer and the division bench comprising Justices Naimatullah Phulpoto and Shamsuddin Abbasi ordered Mr Lashari to join the JIT.

The bench also ordered heads of JIT and PTF to hold another session on the case within three weeks and make joint efforts for the recovery of the missing person by using modern technology, electronic and print media and then a detailed report be submitted on July 3.

The JIT’s report said that it reached the conclusion that Mr Arijo’s was a case of ‘enforced disappearance’ after a detailed discussion. According to SHO of Hussainabad police station, five criminal cases lodged under sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act were registered against Arijo between 2012 and 2016. In two cases he was declared an absconder and in three he was declared a proclaimed offender, it said.

The report said that Tanveer Arijo, daughter of Khadim Arijo, told JIT that her father was an assistant superintendent in Sindh food department and he attended his office regularly but police never arrested him nor any raid was ever conducted on his house.

The report said the JIT discussed Arijo’s phone records and said that Neelam Arijo, the petitioner and Tanveer Arijo, had argued that their father had remained missing for over a year. If he was wanted in criminal cases, he should be charge-sheeted and produced in the court concerned, it said.

The report said the complainant did not suspect any particular person of abducting her father and the family had not received any call over 13 months, demanding ransom. Arijo’s criminal record showed that he was involved in anti-state activities, especially terrorist activities, it said.

The report said that JIT had written letters to inspectors general of police (IGPs) of Islamabad, Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir and Balochistan as well as IGs of prisons of all provinces and IGs of Frontier Constabulary KP and Balochistan to seek information about Arijo.

The report said that JIT received replies from different offices like medical superintendent of Sir CJ Institute of Psychiatry Hyderabad, CCPO Lahore, additional IGP Counter-Terrorism Department Punjab, director general of FIA immigration wing Islamabad but none of them provided any information about Arijo.

It said that SSP Larkana had been requested to direct investigating officers (IOs) of criminal cases lodged against Arijo to attend next meeting of JIT along with original files of the cases.

The report said that SHO of Hussainabad was also directed to get criminal record of Arijo from his native district of Larkana. The JIT head sought time from the court to enable the team to recover the missing person.

Ms Neelam Arijo had stated in her petition that on April 17, Dr Shayan Ahmed, nephew of Arijo, drove him to his office on his motorcycle but he did not return. She contacted him and found his cell phone switched off. His colleagues at the food department told petitioner that Arijo did not reach office.

She said that she approached DIG and SSP after she received threats from different people. Some persons also visited her house and issued her threats, she said, requesting the court to direct DIG to provide her protection and take steps to find and save her father’s life.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2018