Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI) have refused the custody of anchorperson Imran Riaz Khan. Both agencies on Thursday took this stance in Lahore High Court (LHC) through a senior police officer, Kamran Adil Deputy Inspector General (investigation). It merits mentioning here that the whereabouts of Imran Riaz Khan are unknown since his arrest on May 11, this month.
A petition in this regard was filed on May 12, immediately after the arrest of Imran Riaz on which LHC had ordered the Attorney General to produce an anchorperson in court but orders were not followed by the government. After that LHC gave an ultimatum of 48 hours to recover and produce the missing Imran Riaz. Muhammad Riaz the father of the anchorperson could get an FIR registered with Civil Lines police station on May 16 in this regard. FIR was registered under section 356 of PPC which deals with kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine a person.
Earlier Inspector of Police Punjab, Dr. Usman Anwar had appeared before the court and told that the anchorperson was not in police custody. On Thursday LHC asked the Minister of Interior and Minister of Defence to discharge their duties and play their due role in the recovery of the missing anchorperson Imran Riaz.
On Thursday DIG police (Investigation) appeared on behalf of the Provincial Police Chief and requested the court to exempt his Chief personal appearance since the latter was busy in a ceremony in Gujranwala in connection with to pay respect to Martyrs. Chief Justice Lahore High Court, Muhammad Ameer Bhatti directed DIG to produce a record of the IGP schedule on the next hearing.
DIG assured the court that he would produce the record at the next hearing and he further said that Punjab police have approached ISI and MI to know about the whereabouts of Imran Riaz but both of them have refused to have any information.
Imran Riaz’s father Muhammad Riaz said in court that his son was being punished for making a V-log on which CJ LHC said that the court will ensure human rights for the general public.
