Agencies reply on missing persons unsatisfactory: SC

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has directed the KPK chief secretary to submit the details of the cases filed against the missing persons recovered from intelligence agencies.The missing inmates of Adiala Jail case hearing was conducted by the 3-member bench of the apex court headed by chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. The chief secretary presented the report on the missing people.The report indicated about 35 meetings of these inmates with their relatives had been held. The court also termed the answer submitted by agencies attorney Raja Irshad unsatisfactory.The court also inquired as to why the prisoners remained missing till January 26. The hearing of the case was adjourned till March 16.News agencies add: A lawyer for Pakistans intelligence service faced court on Thursday, unable to explain why seven men acquitted of terror charges were allegedly held for 18 months after their release was ordered.The seven appeared before Supreme Court judges on February 13 in poor health, barely able to stand or talk, prompting judges to ask why they went missing despite their release being granted in May 2010.The group had been held over a November 2007 suicide attack on security forces that killed at least 20 people and an October 2009 siege on army headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.Under which law had you been detaining them? chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry asked Raja Irshad, a lawyer representing the ISI and military intelligence.Irshad did not reply directly, but instead said the courts questions were being conveyed to the concerned authorities.Defending the ISI, Irshad called on parliament to pass more effective anti-terrorism laws to ensure suspects in high-profile cases are not acquitted on the basis on insufficient evidence.They may have attacked General Headquarters or Hamza Camp, but bring the evidence, Chaudhry said in response.He pressed Irshad on alleged abuses in Pakistans southwestern Baluchistan province, where security services are accused of killing and detaining hundreds of people in a bid to crush a six-year separatist insurgency.Dead bodies are being found and Baluchistan is on fire, the judge said.The court originally demanded that 11 men linked to the terror attacks be produced, but it was told four of them had died.Irshad said the intelligence services accepted the constitutional authority of the court and that the seven surviving men were being given medical care at a hospital following court orders.After the hearing Irshad told reporters outside the court that collecting evidence in terrorism cases was very time consuming, which was why the men had been held.The phenomena of terrorism is very recent and there is an urgent need for new legislation because it is a matter of solidarity and security of the country, he said.When they were in custody, the army did not want to do a fake or mock trial because it takes very long time to collect evidence in high profile cases, he said.The four suspects died at Lady Reading hospital and doctors have issued their death certificates. If someone thinks that they died because of torture or poisoning, they should request an autopsy, he said.In suicide attacks it is very difficult to reach to the mastermind and handlers, but in the Hamza Camp attack case, investigators reached these men through a cell phone number written on the bombers palm, he said.