| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| Peshawar court issues notice for holding al-Qaeda suspect for 15 months |
| 2006-01-05 |
| The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday summoned police officials and issued notice to the Interior Ministry for keeping a man in detention for 15 months on suspicions of having links with Al Qaeda and involvement in terrorism. A single bench headed by Justice Shahjehan Khan Yousafzai heard the habeas corpus petition. Father of Shafiq Ahmad, the detainee, filed a petition saying that intelligence agencies, headed by the area station house officer, arrested his son from his clothes shop during business hours on September 28, 2005. He said that he, his brother and nearby shopkeepers were present when Ahmad was arrested. He said the police took him to the Charbagh Police Station and when he went to there to meet his son, the police told him that he had been moved to another location by intelligence agencies for interrogation. He said that the police did not register a first investigation report (FIR) for Ahmadâs arrest. He made the Interior Ministry, the SHO and the senior superintendent of police, Swat, respondents to the writ petition. The petitionerâs counsel told the court that the father of the detainee had been receiving phones from Rafique Ahmad and Waqar for the last one year saying that his son was in their custody and in good condition. He said that the petitionerâs son was an ex-activist of Jaish-e-Mohammad, a defunct organisation, but he had never been involved in criminal activity before the arrest. He said Ahmadâs arrest without charges and FIR was illegal and against the liberty laws of the citizen. âIf there are any charges against him then why the have not the intelligence agencies brought them up,â the petitionerâs counsel said. He said that after Ahmadâs arrest, the government issued a press statement claiming that it had arrested an activist of Jaish-e-Mohammad. He said the government had also claimed that explosives were also seized from the activist of the organisation. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |