SC gives police 10-day deadline to recover abducted youth

ISLAMABAD - Expressing strong reservations regarding the federal capital polices negligence in recovering the missing son of Shakeel Ahmed Turabi, Editor-in-Chief of a news agency (Sana News), Supreme Court, Friday, gave police 10-day deadline to ensure safe recovery of Turabis son. The court directed DIG Binyamin if he had some sort of knowledge about the responsible persons who knew whereabouts of the child, then he should inform the court so that appropriate steps could be taken. On this, DIG replied that names were clearly mentioned in the FIR. Later, while talking to TheNation DIG said that Hassan, 17, was in strong hands and it was not an easy task for the police to get him released from them. It is relevant to mention here that DIG had, earlier, informed Shakeel Turabi on his cell phone that Hassan was in custody of a serving Brigadier that informed police on phone. After that, he assured Turabi that after two days Hassan would be released but that did not happen. It may be recalled here that the son of Editor-In-Chief Sana news Shakeel Ahmed Turabi went missing some five months back and the Supreme Court took suo moto notice of the case. A three-member SC bench comprising CJ Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Rumday heard the case regarding the abduction of Sharjeel Hassan Turabi on Friday. Inspector General of Islamabad Police Kaleem Imam, Deputy Inspector General Binyamin and some other officials of the Capital police appeared before the court. During the course of hearing, Chief Justice questioned the DIG Islamabad whereabouts of the missing child. The DIG informed the bench that every effort would be made to recover the missing child. He said that a letter had also been written to the Ministry of Defence through Interior Secretary, stating that they should be informed if the child was held by secret agencies so that the court could be informed about that. The DIG said that some secret agencies could not be accessed to know about the child fate. Chief Justice, however, remarked if the DIG did not do any thing to ensure release of the abducted child then he should have informed the apex court about his inefficiency. The chief justice said that the court could direct the IG Islamabad to take some solid steps in that regard. Chief Justice rebuked IG Islamabad over the insufficiency of the Islamabad Police and asked him if they failed to discharge their duties efficiently then how discipline could be restored. The court directed the police high ups that it was their duty to recover the child. The IG prayed before the court that though federal police had released scores of people expressing optimism that Turabis son would also be recovered soon. The court adjourned the hearing till May 26.

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