RELATIVES of “missing persons” are now running out of patience as the intelligence and law enforcing agencies continue to drag their feet on the issue. Scores of women, who have been moving from pillar to post in search of their near and dear ones, finally broke their silence at the Peshawar High Court when the court took up for hearing around 350 cases of ‘enforced disappearances’. Several of the women burst into tears and narrated their ordeals to the media persons.
The information provided to a bench of the court by a deputy attorney general was not encouraging for these relatives who always visit the court in large numbers. DAG Muzamil Khan informed the bench headed by Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan that recently 14 persons had been shifted to notified internment centres whereas around 13 were set free.
On April 25, the court was full to its capacity as hundreds of persons including women and children turned up hoping that they would receive any positive news. In their utter disappointment most of them had to return without any noteworthy progress in their cases. The bench fixed May 29 for the next hearing with warnings to the concerned authorities to move faster on the issue.
Soon after the hearing concluded some of the women started crying and cursing the security forces, law enforcing agencies and even courts. These visitors mostly belong to poor social background and coming to the court from other areas including parts of Malakand region is a continuous financial burden on them. Meeting those expenses is an uphill task for them but they have to bear it in hope of getting any information regarding their missing relatives.
“My two sons Mohammad Ayaz and Mohammad Riaz have been missing since July 3, 2009 and so far we have not received any information regarding their whereabouts,” said an old woman, Begum Jan, hailing from Swat’s Bara Banda area, once a stronghold of militants. She said that at least they should be informed whether our children were killed by the security forces or were alive.
Another female, Jan Saba, who claimed that her husband and son were taken away by the security forces in Swat, fainted and was reluctant to leave the court premises. She even asked one of the policemen to kill her by trying to pull his rifle. Finally, the police convinced her to leave.
Almost all these people had identical stories to narrate. They tried to catch attention of the media persons and were constantly asking them to publish the name of their missing relatives. They hoped that the appearance of their names might help in their release, but were ignorant that their captors are apparently devoid of human sentiments.
“I have to borrow money from my neighbours so as to visit Peshawar and pursue the case of my missing brother Mohammad Ghani,” said Ms Mohsina, another resident of Bara Banda area. She said that her brother was taken away by the security forces four years ago and he had been missing since then.
From time to time the high court has been summoning high ranking officials including federal interior and defence secretaries, representatives of intelligence agencies, provincial home secretary, provincial police officer (PPO) and others in these cases and issuing them different directives. On several occasions the court ruled that running detention facilities other than notified internment centres was illegal and unconstitutional. The court continued to explain to the representatives of intelligence agencies that they had been acting in unconstitutional manner by keeping persons in detention for several years and months.
On May 16, 2012, the court had issued a very comprehensive order wherein several guidelines were given to the concerned authorities. The court had directed that those suspects against whom solid evidence was available and were placed in category “black” should be shifted to notified internment centres set up under two regulations promulgated by the president in 2011. It further ordered that those who were innocent and were placed in category “white” should be set free whereas those suspects against whom only slight evidence was available should be handed over to police so that they could be produced before the courts.
In that order the bench quoted several constitutional provisions related to fundamental rights and stated: “Any violation of or invasion of these rights would be taken serious notice of by this court in future and no one would be let loose irrespective of his rank and file, I found guilty for violation of such rights.”
Initially, when the court exerted pressure the authorities came up with several lists last year. According to those lists 1,035 detainees were set free which include those who were de-radicalised in reformation centres whereas around 895 had been kept at internment centres. However, after those lists there is no noteworthy progress in these cases and the authorities have mostly been trying to buy more time.
“The court is trying its best to recover these people, but it has been facing several handicaps,” said advocate Arif Jan who has been representing scores of missing persons. He said that the intelligence agencies had not been admitting that these people were in their custody and as they had been running secret detention facilities, therefore, it was difficult for the court to recover the missing persons.
One thing is becoming clear that the hope of these visitors attached to the courts has now been fading and they are becoming disheartened. The elements involved in enforced disappearances will be happy with such developments as it would help them in having a free hand to carry out their illegal and unconstitutional activities without any check.