KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Monday ordered the registration of an FIR against the SHO of the CIA Centre police station and others for illegally detaining six persons in a prison van.

On an application filed for the recovery of detainee Zakir Hussain, Judicial Magistrate (South) Shahzad Khowaja had raided the CIA Centre and its police station, during which the six illegally detained persons were recovered from a prison van.

In its order issued on Monday, the magistrate stated that the concerned SHO was summoned in person but failed to appear.

The magistrate directed the police to register a case against the SHO and prison van driver Rajab Ali under Sections 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder), 344 (wrongful confinement for ten or more days), and 34 (common Intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code,

He directed that a copy of the FIR be submitted to the court on Tuesday (today), and instructed that videos and other evidence held by court staff be handed over to the investigation officer of the case.

In the report submitted before the sessions judge on March 7, the magistrate stated that he reached the CIA Centre and inspected the entire premises, but the alleged detainee was not found there. The applicant, the father of detainee Zakir, pointed to a suspicious prison van parked inside the police station premises and claimed that his son might be inside it.

When the magistrate asked the SHO and the duty officer to open the van, they disappeared from the spot for a while. The magistrate then ordered that the lock be broken, and when the van’s doors were opened, six persons, blindfolded and handcuffed, were found confined inside.

When the magistrate enquired from the six detainees one by one, it transpired that all of the recovered persons had been confined at the police station for more than a day.

Later, the SHO was called and asked to produce any entry, FIR or memo of arrest of the detained persons, but he failed to produce any record.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2026