PTI writes to Prime Minister on victimisation of detainees

10 Aug, 2004

Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) has dispatched a letter to Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain asking him to take notice of the plight of Pakistanis and foreign nationals becoming victims of security agencies' highhandedness in the name of war on terrorism.
The PTI committee for the "Defence of Fundamental Rights Campaign" wrote to the Prime Minister that hundreds of innocent civilians were being victimised by security agencies on suspicion of their alleged links with al Qaeda on the US behest, said a statement issued here on Monday.
The letter written by committee's chairman Khalid Khawaja apprised Shujaat that the government, in many cases, had not been able to produce any proof of detainees' links with any terror organisation, which was an ample proof of their innocence, the statement said.
The letter had also brought into the notice of the Prime Minister the plight of army officers illegally detained for the last 18 months.
Earlier, it was reported on Sunday that the committee had already sent a letter to Vice Chief of Army Staff General Muhammad Yousaf on the same subject.
According to the statement, the purpose of contracting the Prime Minister was to seek justice and bring to an end the mental agony and hardships suffered by detainees and their families.
The PTI had referred many cases wherein the security agencies abducted Pakistani nationals and foreigners on suspicion and kept them in illegal custody without any charge against them, it added.
In most cases, the letter said, security agencies did not even produce these detainees in courts to charge-sheet them, which was a severe violation of country's constitution.
The letter, according to the statement, had asked the Prime Minister to end the victimisation of Pakistanis and foreigners residing in the country on the US behest.
"Otherwise," the letter conveyed to Shujaat, "the consequences of these activities can be of devastating effects for the country and government."

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