The Sindh High Court on Thursday gave last warning to the interior secretary, home secretary, provincial police chief and Rangers' director general to file comments on a petition seeking to know whereabouts of missing advocate and his four family members said to be detained by the law-enforcers.
A division bench, headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto, had taken up a petition filed by Haji Sirhinjan Khan, who moved the court seeking to know whereabouts of his missing two sons and three grandchildren. The counsel for the petitioner submitted that the personnel of law-enforcement agencies raided his house in Orangi Town on February 3 and drove away his two sons - Advocate Muhammad Usman and Muhammad Abbas, and grandchildren - Muhammad Rizwan, Muhammad Adnan and Muhammad Ehsan. They were still missing, he added.
He told the judges that he approached the higher officials of the law-enforcement agencies to seek information about their location but to no avail. He said he was clueless about their whereabouts as the police personnel had refused to disclose the details. He said the law-enforcers had kept them in illegal detention.
The petitioner argued that their unlawful detention was a violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution. He pleaded the court to order the law-enforcers to produce them in court. During hearing, the standing counsel filed a report on behalf of Intelligence Bureau, stating the agency neither arrest nor conduct any investigation. Therefore, the detainees were not in their custody, the report added.