Punjab ordered to submit report

Islamabad: Pakistan's Supreme Court here yesterday set a November 10 deadline for the relevant authorities in Punjab province to submit a final report about recovery of 11 prisoners who went missing recently after being acquitted of terrorism charges by courts.

The prisoners were acquitted by trial courts in April and later the Lahore High Court upheld the decision on May 26 and ordered the release of the accused. In petitions to the top court, relatives alleged the prisoners were handed over to some intelligence agency from the Adiala jail in Rawalpindi near Islamabad instead of being freed under the LHC order.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry has been hearing the petitions.

Deputy Attorney General K.K. Agha had told the bench on Monday the Inter-Services Intelligence, Military Intelligence and the civilian Intelligence Bureau had said that the people named in the petition were not in their custody.