PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has ordered the government not to extradite a “missing” person wanted by the US for allegedly running a human smuggling network and sought a report from Nowshera police about their investigation into his disappearance.

Justice Dr Khursheed Iqbal of a single-member bench fixed Sept 13 for next hearing into the petition of Nowshera resident Bakhtiar Amin against the alleged illegal detention of his brother, Abid Ali Khan, who has a $1 million US bounty on his head.

The petitioner claimed that his brother was taken away by personnel of law-enforcement agencies from Hakeemabad area in Nowshera on June 24, while a police mobile van was visible in the CCTV footage of the incident.

The bench allowed the petitioner to submit additional records in the case, including CCTV footage, copies of the July 12 newspaper clippings as well as screenshots of a private television channel about the “detention.”

Seeks police report on probe into his disappearance

Advocate Shah Faisal Uthmankhel appeared for the petitioner and said that since Abid Ali was taken into custody, his whereabouts hadn’t been known and that his client apprehended his brother’s extradition to the US – an illegal act on part of the government.

He said that the detainee’s family submitted a complaint to the police soon after his “abduction” but the latter didn’t take any action for his recovery.

The counsel said that after the court summoned the Nowshera district police officer and other officials, they registered an FIR on Aug 29 of the abduction against unidentified people.

He claimed that the allegations against the detainee by the US government were baseless as an inquiry by the Federal Investigation Agency found him to be innocent.

On the court’s notice, Nowshera DPO Nasir Mahmood appeared before the court along with additional advocate general Nisar Khan.

The DPO and other police officials submitted a report which was perused by the bench.

The bench observed that the report showed that after submission of the complaint by the petitioner to the police on Jun 25, it was followed by further proceedings including preparation of site plan, obtaining call data record and preparation of certain case diaries.

The bench observed that the proceedings finally culminated into the registration of the FIR, but against unknown persons.

The petitioner’s counsel raised certain objections about the said report and said that the site plan was defective and that till date no investigation in respect of the travelling of the missing person at the relevant time and shown in the CCTV footage had been conducted.

The bench observed that as the FIR had now been registered and the matter was yet to be investigated therefore, the court would not comment in that respect at this stage, as it would have far-reaching consequences.

“It is, however, a floating fact on the surface of the record that there had been overwriting on the date of the case diaries, which raises questions about the exact time when the proceedings were conducted,” it observed.

The bench declared that as the investigation was under way, the police officials should submit a proper report with respect to its progress and their efforts to trace out the culprits.

Moreover, the bench observed that in view of the additional documents proper report and reply was needed.

The US government had announced in Oct 2021 the reward of $1 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Abid Ali.

It alleged that since 2015, Abid Ali had operated a Pakistani-based human smuggling network to facilitate the travel of undocumented individuals into the US from Pakistan and Afghanistan in exchange for payment.

The US government added that in addition to planning and coordinating international travel from Pakistan through multiple countries, including Brazil and the US, the wanted man offered or provided false documents for foreign nationals to use for travel.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2023