Murad Khan Marri, who remained incommunicado for nine months and was brought into the limelight by the Frontier Corp (FC), being arrested for the murder of Chinese engineers; for carrying Indian currencies and for keeping explosive material, has again disappeared while in the custody of FC.
According to the details, Colonel Asad Shehzad Khatak of the FC held a press conference on March 27 and told the media that Murad Khan Marri was arrested from Chaman, Balochistan province, while crossing Afghan border into Pakistan with explosive material and was wanted in the murder of Chinese engineers. Please see the Urgent Appeal; http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2010/3407/
After his arrest, he was lodged at Saddar police station, Chaman city for further investigation without being produced before any court as claimed by his lawyer, Agha Zahid. His lawyer says that Marri was not found in the police station and his whereabouts are unknown. He was neither found in the prison of Chaman district. There is every possibility that he may have been kept incommunicado for the purpose of extracting a confessional statement from him using torture.
The FC is very active in the province where there is a strong nationalist movement for autonomy of the province. The province was under military action several times since the creation of Pakistan. During the eight years of the rule of former president General Musharraf, the province was continuously under military operations and hundreds of people were made to disappear by the state intelligence agencies, soon after their arrest. The persons, who remained missing for months, when released, claimed that they were kept in different military torture cells to confess that they were on the run or belonged to the Balochistan Liberation Army, an organization banned by the military government.
After the formation of the civilian set-up, the government announced the withdrawal of military operation and handed over the law and order situation of the province to the FC, which is a Para military force. Immediately after the FC took control, three political activists were abducted by the plainclothes men and three days later, their mutilated bodies were found. These three persons were members of the committee which was probing the cases of disappearances. These persons also went missing for many months and were kept in different military torture cells.
The re-disappearance of Murad Marri is very alarming. This shows that law enforcement authorities in the province are taking the law in their hands. They do not produce the accused persons before the court of law within twenty-four hours of their arrest, which is legally mandatory.
As defined in the Preamble of the Declaration of the UN working group on enforced or involuntary disappearances (WGEID), enforced disappearances occur when persons are arrested, detained or abducted against their will or otherwise deprived of their liberty by officials of different branches or levels of Government or by organized groups or private individuals acting on behalf of, or with the support, direct or indirect, consent or acquiescence of the Government, followed by a refusal to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the persons concerned or a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of their liberty, which places such persons outside the protection of the law.
The case of Murad Marri is a clear violation of UN Charter and various Conventions pertaining to the freedom of individuals and their inalienable rights. The government should take immediate action on the re-disappearance of Murad Marri; get his release from the law enforcement authorities and initiate an enquiry into cases where arrested persons are kept incommunicado for extracting confessional statements. It is feared by the family of Murad Marri that he must be going through severe kind of torture and that he would be killed in an encounter. Therefore, government should immediately reveal the whereabouts of Murad Khan Marri.
