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Published 16 Feb, 2012 04:32am

Moving scenes at funeral of missing brothers’ mother

KOHAT: Moving scenes were witnessed in Togh Bala area here on Wednesday at the funeral of a woman, who died of a heart attack hours after seeing her ailing sons at the Supreme Court.   

Roheela Bibi, the mother of three missing persons, one of whom already dead, suffered a heart attack the same night after seeing her two sons in Supreme Court on Tuesday. Hundreds of relatives, elders of the area and family members of missing persons from Islamabad and Peshawar attended her funeral prayers.

Abdul Qudoos, her eldest son, told Dawn on the occasion that along with his mother, he had gone to the Supreme Court on Tuesday where his two brothers, Abdul Majid and Abdul Basit, were presented. Their health was so weak that they could hardly stand on their feet, he said.

“Our mother had survived the shock of his one son’s death but pain numbed her when she saw the condition of her other sons in the courtroom. She died of heart attack the same night,” he added.

Mr Qadoos alleged that his 28-year-old brother Abdul Saboor was killed in the custody of intelligence agencies and his body was left near a filling station on January 26, 2012 in Peshawar.

The deceased had been badly tortured and died of thirst, he said, adding that marks of severe torture were visible on his body.

“I received a phone call from an unidentified person, who told me that my brother was terribly sick and we should rush to a Peshawar hospital. But when we reached Darra Adamkhel, the same person called again to tell us that my brother expired and we should collect his body,” he said.

Mr Qadoos said that they reached the filling station where an ambulance was parked and his brother’s body was lying in it, covered with a piece of cloth. He said that he recognised his dead brother with the help of certain marks on his nose. He claimed that his brother had died a month earlier and his body had been kept in cold storage.

Khalid Hayat, the brother of the deceased woman, said that his three nephews had been picked up from Urdu Bazaar in Lahore in November 2007. They were kept in Adiala Jail and later presented in an anti-terrorism court, which released them, he said.

“But they disappeared soon,” he added.

Mr Hayat said that everybody knew that they were in the custody of intelligence agencies but no one could raise a voice.

“The intelligence agencies are above the law. They treat prisoners in the worst way as compared to the inmates of Guantanamo Bay,” he alleged.

He said that Abdul Saboor had left a daughter and widow behind to mourn his death. Abdul Basit had three sons and a daughter while Abdul Majid had three daughters, he said, adding their father had died before they went missing.

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