'11 go missing from Adiala Jail'

ISLAMABAD Defence of Human Rights Pakistan (DHRP) on Tuesday expressed grave concerns over the alleged abduction of eleven prisoners by law enforcement agencies from Adiala Jail and urged the Supreme Court to take suo moto notice of the incident. The relatives of missing persons made this request during a press conference organised by the DHRP. According to provided details, the eleven prisoners, who went missing from the Adiala Jail on 29th of May 2010, includes Dr Niaz Ahmed, Muzhar-ul-Haq, Shafeequr Rehman, Abdul Basat, Abdul Saboor, Abdul Majad, Amir Khan, Thaseen Ullah, Muhammad Shafeeq, Saeed Arab and Gul Roz. Speaking at the occasion, the relatives of missing persons informed that their dear ones were sent to the Adiala Jail under different false cases. After trial period of two years, they got release from the court. However, instead of releasing them, the DCO Rawalpindi and Home Secretary Punjab sent them to the jail and their act was later challenged in the Lahore High Court. On 28th May 2010, LHC ordered the jail authorities to release them but the Jail Superintendent did not obey the orders and kept them under illegal detention. Dr Murtaza, father of Muzhar-ul-Haq, while talking about the whole incident informed that the Jail Superintendent forcefully took thumb stamp of these prisoners a day head of their release. The Jail Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent along with other police officials also physically tortured them and forcefully thrown them into the agencies vans on the 29th of May, he further noted. He informed that his son was associated with the work of printing Quranic verses for the Lal Masjid. After Lal Masjid operation, police implicated his son in false case, as they got his phone number from the record of the Lal Masjid. The participants demanded that FIR should be registered against the Jail Superintendent, Saeedullah Gondal and Deputy Jail Superintendent, Khalid Bashir. They also demanded action against the DCO Rawalpindi and Home Secretary Punjab for violating court orders. In her address, Amina Janjua, the wife of Masood Janjua missing since May 2005, informed that the number of missing persons was increasing with each passing day. She continued that, so far, she had registered 841 missing persons in the list of DHRP, and out of which, list of 200 missing persons had been given to the Judicial Commission. Replaying to a question, she informed that at present around 3000 people associated with different professions are kept in Quetta Chawani.