Justice Khalid Mahmood Khan of the Lahore High Court on Monday summoned the interior secretary to inform the court about the whereabouts of six Pakistanis released by the United States from Bagram prison in Afghanistan and handed over to Pakistan.
At previous hearings, lawyers representing the government confirmed that the six men had been released from Bagram and repatriated to Pakistan, but claimed to have no knowledge of their current whereabouts.
On Monday, a lawyer representing the Interior Ministry said that the court’s order last Thursday had left the ministry with just one working day to find the whereabouts of the six men, which was not enough. He sought more time.
The court rejected the request, saying the ministry appeared to be using delaying tactics. He noted that the information that the six Pakistanis had been released from Bagram and handed over to Pakistan had come to the court’s knowledge through a letter submitted to a US court of appeals, not through the Government of Pakistan itself.
Appearing on behalf of the Justice Pakistan Project, which is pursuing the case of the six detainees, Barrister Sarah Belal said that the state continued to disregard the prolonged suffering of the detainees and their families.
The released men are Hamidullah Khan, Sabeel Suleiman, Abdul Qadir Imran, Muhammad Riaz, Abdul Karim and Palak Jan. Belal said that all six had been held for several years without charge, trial or access to a lawyer. She said that the JPP had not been informed of their clients’ location nor granted access to them. She added that Hamidullah Khan had only been 14 when he had been kidnapped from Pakistan in 2008 and detained in Bagram. Imran and Riaz had been picked up by the Afghan army and handed over to the US military in 2005.
On a number of occasions since 2011, the LHC has directed the government to secure the immediate release of the Bagram detainees.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 26th, 2013.