12-21-2007, 12:47 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Â <b>Pak frees 100 terror suspects to cover up secret detention: NYT </b>
Pioneer.com
S Rajagopalan | Washington
Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies have quietly set free about 100 terror suspects who had been held in secret detention for long periods without framing of charges, The New York Times has reported citing human rights groups and lawyers in Islamabad.
While no official reason has been given for the releases, lawyers attribute them to a bid to avoid acknowledging the existence of an elaborate secret detention system, detention of persons on flimsy evidence and the mounting pressure to bring up the cases in courts.
<b>Those freed with a warning not to open their mouths on the secret detention are said to be among nearly 500 people "presumed to have disappeared into the hands of the Pakistani intelligence agencies cooperating with Washington's fight against terrorism since 2001".
"They are releasing them because these cases are being made public," the paper quotes Supreme Court lawyer Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui as saying. </b>
They want to avoid publicity," said Siddiqui, who has taken up many cases of the missing persons.
The Pakistani Government, however, has denied detaining people illegally and maintained that many of the missing persons were actually in regular jails on criminal charges.
According to the report, at least two of the detainees were handed over to the US without any legal extradition proceedings. However, American officials in Islamabad and Washington have refused to comment on the cases.
The missing persons issue had become a major bone of contention between President Pervez Musharraf and the former Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who along with some other judges were sacked by Musharraf when he clamped emergency in early November.
The surreptitious releases of detainees is said to be particularly galling to lawyers in Pakistan since one justification cited by Musharraf for imposing emergency rule was that the courts were freeing terror suspects.
Lawyer Siddiqui, however, asserted that Justice Chaudhry's only interest was in bringing the cases of the suspects before the courts since their anguished family members just did not know their whereabouts. Only four or five of the detainees are said to have been brought before the Supreme Court.
<b>Human rights groups in Pakistan have also been alleging that the Government has swept up at least 4,000 other Pakistanis, most of whom are Baluchi and Sindhi nationalists seeking ethnic or regional autonomy and have nothing to do with terrorism.</b>
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Pioneer.com
S Rajagopalan | Washington
Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies have quietly set free about 100 terror suspects who had been held in secret detention for long periods without framing of charges, The New York Times has reported citing human rights groups and lawyers in Islamabad.
While no official reason has been given for the releases, lawyers attribute them to a bid to avoid acknowledging the existence of an elaborate secret detention system, detention of persons on flimsy evidence and the mounting pressure to bring up the cases in courts.
<b>Those freed with a warning not to open their mouths on the secret detention are said to be among nearly 500 people "presumed to have disappeared into the hands of the Pakistani intelligence agencies cooperating with Washington's fight against terrorism since 2001".
"They are releasing them because these cases are being made public," the paper quotes Supreme Court lawyer Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui as saying. </b>
They want to avoid publicity," said Siddiqui, who has taken up many cases of the missing persons.
The Pakistani Government, however, has denied detaining people illegally and maintained that many of the missing persons were actually in regular jails on criminal charges.
According to the report, at least two of the detainees were handed over to the US without any legal extradition proceedings. However, American officials in Islamabad and Washington have refused to comment on the cases.
The missing persons issue had become a major bone of contention between President Pervez Musharraf and the former Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who along with some other judges were sacked by Musharraf when he clamped emergency in early November.
The surreptitious releases of detainees is said to be particularly galling to lawyers in Pakistan since one justification cited by Musharraf for imposing emergency rule was that the courts were freeing terror suspects.
Lawyer Siddiqui, however, asserted that Justice Chaudhry's only interest was in bringing the cases of the suspects before the courts since their anguished family members just did not know their whereabouts. Only four or five of the detainees are said to have been brought before the Supreme Court.
<b>Human rights groups in Pakistan have also been alleging that the Government has swept up at least 4,000 other Pakistanis, most of whom are Baluchi and Sindhi nationalists seeking ethnic or regional autonomy and have nothing to do with terrorism.</b>
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