HRCP shows concern over death of another Pak Army detainee

Islamabad, Jan 25 (ANI): The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has raised an alarm through its reports that another person who had been detained for suspected involvement in an attack on the military headquarters has been found dead.

"HRCP shows its serious concern that with the recovery of Abdul Saboor's body in Peshawar late last week, four of the 11 persons held on charges of involvement in the GHQ attack have now turned up dead," the Daily Times quoted the HRPC report, as saying.

"Their families had earlier spoken of the detained men being tortured and apprehended that they would be killed. The plight of the families of the four men killed and the seven who are believed to be alive, at least for now, is similar to hundreds of others who have been devastated by enforced disappearances by agents of the state across the country."

"HRCP stressed that charges of involvement in acts of terrorism, do not deprive those accused of their due process rights," it added.

The fourth civilian facing a court martial under the Pakistan Army Act on charges of attacking the GHQ and ISI Hamza camp died mysteriously last Friday, a brother of the deceased has claimed.

Abdul Saboor's brother Mufti Shakoor said that an unknown caller had asked him to collect the body of his brother from the Haji camp in Peshawar.

Twenty-nine-year-old Abdul Saboor is the fourth civilian detained in the case to have died in mysterious circumstances over the past six months. Mohammad Aamir died on August 15 last year, Tahseen Ullah on December 17, and Said Arab on December 18. Their bodies were recovered from the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar.

The deceased was reportedly picked up by intelligence agencies on November 25, 2007, along with his younger brothers Abdul Basit and Abdul Majid from Lahore.

On April 8, 2008, Aamir, Arab, Ullah, Mazharul Haq, Shafigur Rehman, Mohammad Shafiq, and Gul Roze were acquitted by the Anti-Terrorism Court in Rawalpindi after the prosecution failed to make a case against them.

However, before their release, the Rawalpindi DCO issued a detention order under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance. On May 6, 2010, it was extended for 90 days by the Punjab home secretary, but it was set aside by the Lahore High Court's Rawalpindi bench on May 28, 2010.

The Superintendent of Adiyala Jail, Saeedulllah Gondal, is reported to have handed over the detainees to the ISI and the MI.

In May, 2011, however, the advocate general informed the apex court that the detainees had been formally arrested in the first week of April and a case under Section 2 (1) (d) of the Pakistan Army Act, 1952, was registered against them. (ANI)