PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday disposed of a case against the alleged custodial killing of a missing person after the petitioner said he didn’t want to charge any official for the killing under the police’s pressure.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Syed Afsar Shah observed that if the petitioner wanted to register a case against any official suspected of being involved in the death of his brother, he could do so in future.

The petition was filed by Asadullah Khan from Peshawar’s Chamkani area, whose brother Roohullah was held by the police for being a would-be suicide bomber.

Petitioner says doesn’t want to pursue case due to police pressure

However, the suspect mysteriously disappeared after release.

The petitioner said his brother was arrested on May 24, 2013 along with mother, three brothers and another person in Tarnab Farm area but an anti-terrorism court acquitted all of them in Aug 2013.

He said while five suspects were freed from prison, the police detained Roohullah in another case about the bombing of a political party’s election office before the May 11 general elections. However, he secured bail from the court.

The petitioner claimed that when Roohullah came out of prison on Sept 6, 2013, he was allegedly taken away by unidentified persons in presence of family members.

While the case regarding his alleged illegal detention was pending and the court had summoned the provincial police officer, his body carrying marks of torture and firearm was recovered on Nov 21, 2013, from an area in Khyber Agency.

Additional advocate general Mian Arshad Jan said then SHO of Chamkani police station Abdul Hameed had claimed in his statement that the police didn’t take the missing person into custody after he was freed from the prison.

He said the missing person’s body was found in a tribal area.

Shabbir Hussain Gigyani, lawyer for the petitioner, said his client didn’t want to pursue the case.

He said his client and his family were under the police’s pressure to abandon the case and that they didn’t want to create more problems for themselves by pursuing the case.

Also, the bench disposed of two petitions against the alleged illegal detentions of two persons declared ‘black’ internees by the relevant oversight board.

In a petition, Talib Jan claimed that his son, Burhan, was taken into custody by law-enforcement agencies around three years ago but later the family learned that he was kept at the Landi Kotal internment centre.

He said the family met the detainee.

The AAG said according to the report of the oversight board concerned, the internee was placed in the black category asthere was evidence against him regarding his involvement in acts of terrorism.

Similarly, another petitioner, Muslimeen, said his son, Naik Ameen, was arrested few years ago and that he had been kept at Landi Kotal internment centre.

AAG Arshad Jan said the Peshawar commissioner had sought the report of the oversight board about the internee and found he had been placed in the ‘black’ category.

While disposing of the petitions, the bench issued the internment centre management to allow families to meet internees.

The centre management was also told to extend proper health facilities to internees.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2014