ISLAMABAD, Feb 26: Attorney General Irfan Qadir informed the Supreme Court on Tuesday that deployment of the armed forces in ‘operational areas’ of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa against militants had been requisitioned under Article 245 of the Constitution.

“The military has been requisitioned by the president as supreme commander of the armed forces under Article 245 of the Constitution,” he said while submitting a notification to a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. The bench had taken up a set of applications regarding the health conditions of seven surviving Adiyala prisoners accused of terrorism.

They have been kept at an internment centre in Parachinar, Kurram Agency, under the Action in Aid of Civil Power Regulations 2011 without any trial. The regulations allow the government to confine persons accused of terrorism in internment centres.

Eleven prisoners had mysteriously gone missing from the gate of Rawalpindi’s Adiyala jail on May 29, 2010, the day they had been acquitted of terrorism charges over their alleged involvement in the audacious October 2009 attacks on the army General Headquarters and the Inter-Services Intelligence’s Hamza Camp in Rawalpindi.

Later four of them died in mysterious circumstances and the remaining seven were presented before the court on Feb 13 last year.

They had mysteriously went missing from Rawalpindi Adiyala Jail door the day they were acquitted of terrorism charges in May 29, 2010 for their alleged involvement in the audacious October 2009 attacks on GHQ and the ISI’s Hamza Camp Rawalpindi. At the last hearing, the seven prisoners had requested the court to reconsider their cases and order their release citing health reasons, but the court was informed that the internment authorities had turned down the applications on the grounds that they were involved in attacks on security forces.

On Tuesday, the attorney general reiterated his earlier stance that trial against the prisoners could not be commenced or their custody handed over to any other agency till the completion of the military operation.

The chief justice went through the notification provided by the attorney general, but appeared to be unsatisfied with its contents, saying the troops had been deployed in aid of the civil powers on the requirement of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.

But he admitted that the matter was very sensitive since the armed forces were always deployed on the order of the federal government and explained that Article 245 had already been interpreted in 1977 by a five-judge bench of the Lahore High Court in the Darvesh case.

The chief justice made it clear that the court would not ignore the ground realities and would examine the notification issued by the provincial government only to determine whether or not rights were available to the seven prisoners.

“Perhaps the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government issued the notification for deployment of the armed forces without consulting the attorney general,” the court observed.

Fata Secretary Jamal Nasir informed the court that the oversight board had declined the request of the prisoners five times on the grounds that their release could be detrimental keeping in view their involvement in heinous crimes and terrorist acts. Advocate Tariq Asad, representing the prisoners, could not satisfy the court on the point whether the Supreme Court had the jurisdiction to intervene in such matters. He could only say he would soon leave the country forever. The court adjourned the hearing till Thursday.