In a bid to legalise confinement of suspected militants, the government is giving final touches to establishment of Internment centres both in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administrative Tribal Areas (FATA).
Before awarding sentences to these detainees, government through such centres will give top priority to their reforms.
Through some highly placed sources, Pakistan Today came to know that the proposed plan is in accordance with the recently promulgated presidential order, “Action in aid of civil power”.
The basic purposes of the new law is to ensure maximum punishment to all those involved in terrorist acts both in FATA and Provincially Administrative Tribal Areas (PATA). Such centres would function like of Sabawoon, Mashaal and other centres already functioning in Swat.
According to officials, the number of alleged and suspect militants and terrorists both in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA are between 4,500 and 5,000. All these people have been apprehended since 2009 and due to one or other reasons, around 500 to 600 have been acquitted by various courts of law. The officials said the internment centres would be established in almost all districts affected by terrorism in the last couple of years.
Whereas the internment centres in FATA and PATA would be established at divisional headquarters like Peshawar, Bannu, Kohat and Dera Ismail Khan. In this respect, special cells would be opened inside central jails. Before going for a final decision regarding the fate of suspects, efforts would be made through psychiatrists, educationists and ulema opposing militancy and terrorism. But a final decision would be made through a committee comprising of two representatives each of armed forces and civil bureaucracy.
Sources said at present, cases of more than 300 missing persons were pending with the Peshawar High Court and after declaration of the internment centres, theses cases could be withdrawn.
After the withdrawal of such cases, the petitioners and relatives would approach the internment centres. The committee is likely to give recommendation of premature-retirement of those civil and military officers whose links with terrorists have been confirmed. Besides, civil and military officers and a number of traders from both FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been found guilty of paying money to militants and the committee would decide their fate as well.
