ISLAMABAD, June 26: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto has expressed concern over what she termed mysterious kidnapping of people by secret agencies and called for bringing the agencies under the ambit of law.

“The international day for the prevention of torture should serve as a reminder that Pakistan is among the countries where the state agencies routinely torture citizens with impunity and that the practice must come to an end,” Ms Bhutto said in a statement from exile and released by the PPP Media Centre here on Tuesday.

Ms Bhutto said kidnapping and holding in illegal custody of citizens by agencies was also a form of mental torture, adding: “It has necessitated that the agencies be urgently brought under the ambit of law.”

The PPP chairperson said the regime in Pakistan not only tolerated but also appeared to even promote it by turning a blind eye to the mysterious kidnapping of people by secret agencies that then falsely denied the charges before the courts of law. “The agencies deny kidnappings and torture only because the regime has taken the position before the courts that the operations of the state’s intelligence agencies were beyond the control and oversight of the defence and interior ministries,” she said.

Ms Bhutto said the police force also needed to be reformed to abjure the use of torture as an instrument of extracting confession. She said the objective of elimination of torture would not be achieved unless the police force was modernised and properly educated to respect the law and the Constitution.

Ms Bhutto also called for the release of Balochistan National Party-M leader Akhtar Mengal, Alliance for Restoration of Democracy President Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, Jamhoori Watan Party’s Zain Bugti and other detainees.