Daily Times

KARACHI: After its failure to track down 76 missing persons said to have disappeared a few years ago the provincial task force (PTF) has decided to consign their cases to wastebasket with recommendation for payment of compensation to their legal heirs.

The task force, comprising the representatives of the security and intelligence agencies, discussed the cases of 76 missing persons in its meeting held on March 31 and found no clue to their whereabouts, said the report submitted to a division bench of the Sindh High Court.

The report said that the task force had decided to close 76 cases for being very old and all possible efforts would be made to ensure financial assistance for the families of the missing men.

The report was presented to the two-judge bench headed by Justice Irfan Saddat Khan seized with the hearing of over 50 constitutional petitions seeking the whereabouts of missing men.

The court has for the umpteenth time expressed grave concern over the performance of the provincial task force and joint investigations teams for being unable to trace out missing men. It had went on to observe, “Their performance in locating missing persons is zero. The JITs and PTF were complete eyewash. This sort of performance reflects that no missing man will ever be recovered by them.”

It, therefore, had directed the provincial authorities to incorporate competent officials in JITs and PTF so that the purpose of their formation could be served.

Meanwhile, the bench also reproached the SSP investigation Akhtar Farooqui and other senior police officers for presenting incomplete reports in the missing persons cases.

Donkey hides: A customs and taxation court extended the physical remand of seven accused, including a woman and a Chinese citizen, till May 09 in donkey hides smuggling cases.

The investigating officer produced Tu-zhong Xiao, Afshan Ehtisham Syed Ehtisham Zaidi, Muhammad Faisal Bhutto, Muhammad Jumman, Zeeshan Jan, Daniyal Rahman and Muhammad Shakeel before the court and requested it to extend their remand for further questioning.

According to the details of the cases, the police had recovered as many as 4,736 donkey hides worth Rs118.4 million kept in 592 sacks in Gulistan-e-Jauhar’s Block-12 on April 26. Later, they handed over the suspects and seized to the customs authorities for further action.

It was revealed during the investigation that the hides were illegally brought from Lahore for their smuggling to China. There were about eight hides in one sack and one hide is sold for approximately Rs25, 000, he added.

The court was informed that China was using donkey hides in medicine named Ejiao, which is useful in blood-related disease. The Ejiao is obtained from donkey’s Gilatin and owing to this reasons, China has become major importer of donkey hides.

According to the IO, the Chinese citizen, Tu Zhong Xiao masterminded the smuggling of hides.