PESHAWAR, Dec 18: The provincial government and Frontier Corps told a Peshawar High Court bench on Tuesday that around 260 militants had recently been shifted to notified internment centres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while 86 would be ‘de-radicalised’ next month.

Appearing before Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth, provincial home secretary Azam Khan said in line with the order of the court, 192 people held by law-enforcement and security agencies had been shifted to internments centres, while 45 were freed after no evidence of their involvement in terrorist activities was found.

He said of these people, 56 were transferred to the Lakki Marwat internment centre, 36 to Fizza Ghut’s and 100 to Pak-Austrian Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management’s in Swat district.

The secretary added that 86 militants would be sent to the de-radicalisation centres in Jan where they would remain for four months.

He said the provincial chief secretary had directed the communication and works department bosses to complete work on Kohat internment centre until Jan 15 and once it was over, 200 militants, who were placed in category ‘black’, would be shifted there.

Representative of Frontier Corps Major Farrukh, who was also in attendance, said 71 militants, who were in the custody of FC, were shifted to internment centres in Bara (Khyber Agency), Ghalanai (Mohmand Agency), Khar (Bajaur Agency), Landi Kotal (Khyber Agency) and Alizai (lower Kurram Agency).

He added that scores of militants were handed over to administrations of tribal agencies for trial under the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR).

The bench asked the secretary whether the figures given by them were correct. The secretary replied in affirmative saying to the best of his knowledge, the figures were correct.

The bench fixed Jan 22 for next hearing in the cases and decided that the cases pending before the courts would be tallied with the lists provided by the home secretary and FC to ascertain whether any of the detainee mentioned in these petitions was available in the lists or not.

The bench observed all detainees in custody of security agencies should be categorised and those against whom evidence was available should be shifted to internment centres.

These internment centres have been functioning under the Action (in aid of civil power) Regulation, 2011, for Fata and Pata, under which the government was empowered to set up internments centres where suspects could be interned for unspecified period.The bench was hearing around 130 cases of enforced disappearances filed by families of missing persons.

The chief justice observed that none of the national institutions had the authority to keep a person in illegal detention. He said families of missing persons had been subjected to agony but the shifting of scores of detainees to internment centres or their freedom on the court orders had helped reduced the misery.

The chief justice observed that by shifting the detainees to internment centres at least their family members had the knowledge where they had been kept.