Ex-soldier seeks re-evaluation of Pak secret agencies' role

A former Pakistani soldier, who was allegedly picked up and tortured by security agencies, has approached the Supreme Court to issue an order for creating a parliamentary committee to reassess the role of agencies like the Military Intelligence and the Inter-Services Intelligence.
The re-evaluation by the parliamentary panel will help prevent the "crippling" of young soldiers and end the trend of mutilated bodies being found in different parts of the country, Naik Mohammad Iqbal said in his petition filed through his lawyer Inamul Raheem.
Iqbal was taken into custody by intelligence agencies on November 27, 2004, when his battalion was deployed at Leepa Front in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The Dawn newspaper quoted Raheem as saying that Iqbal was never informed about the charges against him.
Iqbal claimed in his petition that his detention was kept so secret that even his family was not informed about it.
The family was made to believe that he had disappeared without the knowledge of his unit.

He said he was thrown in front of his house at midnight in 2008, "half dead and almost blind".
He sought a high-level inquiry to determine the "legality and mandate" of his treatment by intelligence agencies during captivity.
He requested the court to hold responsible the entire chain of command, including corps commanders, directors general of ISI and MI and former President Pervez Musharraf, for illegally allowing intelligence agencies to use draconian methods to suppress persons for personal gains.

Iqbal said he was initially held in solitary confinement in Muzaffarabad Fort for about two years, subjected to brutal torture and coerced to confess to crimes he had never committed.
Then he was taken to a "torture cell" near the vicinity of the army's General Headquarters, he alleged.
He said he was "totally crippled and became disabled".
Instead of any treatment, he was thrown in a dungeon to die, the application claimed.
Iqbal contended he was entitled to get his full pay and allowances and medical attention but due to the role of intelligence agencies, his unit wrote him off and the brigade commander and the general officer commanding never felt that it was their responsibility to look after his wife.