HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court was informed on Wednesday that Inter-Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence had denied having “missing person” Imdad Ali Umrani in their custody.

Assistant attorney general (AAG) Aslam Pervez Khan told the division bench comprising Justices Abdul Maalik Gaddi and Adnanul Karim Memon that he had received reports from the two intelligence agencies through the ministry of defence, intimating that they had not held Umrani.

He said that he had written a letter to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa home department requesting it to send a report on internment centres which were under its administrative control but he had not yet received a response. He sought time to submit it to the court which adjourned the matter to Oct 20.

SSP Adeel Chandio filed a report along with photocopies of some documents and the court directed him to continue efforts for the recovery of the missing person.

He said in a statement submitted to the court that a JIT formed by the SHC in October 2018 to probe this case viewed Umrani’s case as a “missing person who has gone on his own”.

He said the JIT based its opinion on the fact that the petitioner did not mention enmity with anyone and a witness, one Asif Ali, stated that Umrani was associated with a jihadi organisation and he would frequently disappear for long periods and return home at will.

He said the petitioner’s case had been lodged and its investigating officer had been directed to get financial account statement from bank and have Umrani’s national identity card blocked as per standard operating procedure.

The petition was filed by Malookzadi, mother of the missing person, in 2018, stating that a shop-owner, Nooh Khan alias Kamal, informed her family on Oct 26, 2015 that policemen in civvies had taken away Imdad Ali. She rushed to Qasimabad police station and sought their help but police did not take interest in her complaint, she said.

Then, she said, her family filed applications with DIG and SSP of Hyderabad and sent their copies to Sindh chief minister and sessions judge of Hyderabad seeking recovery of her son but no action was taken. Finally, they sent an application to chief justice of Pakistan, appealing to him to take suo motu action in the case.

She said that DIG and SSP whom she had cited as respondents in the petition did not disclose whereabouts of her missing son although they knew it. She was in great pain and suffered constant mental torture because of prolonged disappearance of her son.

She appealed to the judges to direct the respondents to produce the detainee before this court. Federal interior minister, secretary of home department and DG of ISI should be directed to constitute a JIT under supervision of the court and submit a report on her missing son, who was father of three children, she said.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2020