Pakistan's Supreme Court has issued notices to the heads of the ISI and the Military Intelligence besides other senior officials to explain the circumstances that led to the death of four men while allegedly in the custody of security agencies.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry issued the notices on Wednesday after admitting a petition filed by a woman whose three sons were picked up by intelligence operatives for their alleged role in attacks on the army's General Headquarters and the ISI's Hamza Camp base in Rawalpindi.
The woman's sons were detained along with eight other men, and four of the suspects have died in mysterious circumstances over the past six months.
The suspects were being tried under the Army Act. The bench also issued notices to the Attorney General, the Advocate General of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the army's Judge Advocate General and the army commanding officer involved in the detentions.
The bench directed the respondents to file their replies by January 30. The bench took up the constitutional petition filed by the woman, identified only as Ruhaifa, after removing objections raised by the Supreme Court Registrar's office.
Ruhaifa petitioned the court for the provision of 'due process of law' to her sons Syed Abdul Saboor, Syed Abdul Basit and Syed Abdul Majid saying "The matter is of public importance and there is apprehension of deaths of the remaining detainees."
After the apex court's Registrar raised objections to the petition, Saboor was killed by intelligence agencies, his brother Mufti Shakoor told The Express Tribune newspaper.