ISLAMABAD, Jan 24, (Agencies): Pakistan is holding 700 suspected Islamist militants without charge under a law that has come under fire from human rights groups, its attorney general said on Thursday.
The admission marked the first time that the strategic U.S. ally detailed how many militants it is holding in the tribal areas of the northwest under the Actions in Aid of Civil Power Regulations law.

“There is a military operation in Waziristan. Under the law we cannot try these 700 people, nor can we release them, unless the operation is over,” Attorney General Irfan Qadir told the Supreme Court, referring to a tribal area near the Afghan border.

In December, Amnesty International condemned the law, saying it “provided a framework for widespread human rights violations to occur with impunity”.

“Many of the men held by the Armed Forces are subjected to enforced disappearance, tortured or otherwise ill-treated while in custody,” said the report.

The London-based rights group said the Pakistani military regularly holds people without charges and tortures or mistreats them in custody. It said some detainees do not survive and their bodies are returned to their families, or dumped in remote areas.

The Pakistani military called the report “a pack of lies.”

The attorney general’s comments came during a Supreme Court hearing into seven suspected militants who have been held without charges since May 2010.

The seven men were among 11 suspected militants captured in connection with a 2007 suicide bombing against ISI personnel and a rocket attack a year later against an air force base. An anti-terrorism court ordered them to be freed in May 2010, but they were picked up again near the capital, Islamabad. Four died in custody under mysterious circumstances.

The ISI produced the seven surviving men in court last February in response to a judicial order prompted by their relatives, who were looking for them. Two of the men were too weak to walk. Another wore a urine bag, suggesting a kidney ailment. In a meeting with their families on the court premises, they
complained of harsh treatment during their detention.

A lawyer for Pakistan’s most powerful intelligence agency said Monday that his client held the suspects for over a year and a half without sufficient evidence to try them and then handed them over to the internment centers in the tribal region. He said officials were convinced they were “dangerous people and involved in terrorism.”

Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry told the attorney general that the men should be tried in a court of law or released if there isn’t sufficient evidence. His remarks seemed to challenge the constitutionality of the new law.

“We don’t want them to be released if they are criminals or militants,” said Chaudhry. “They should be tried under law, and you cannot keep them in custody illegally.”

The court ordered officials from the tribal region to produce a detailed report about the evidence against each suspect when the hearing resumes on Jan. 28.

The Supreme Court has also been pressing the government on a case involving corruption allegations against Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, which he has denied. The chief justice ordered the government’s anti-corruption chief, Fasih Bokhari, to arrest Ashraf last week, but he refused, citing lack of evidence.

The case took a strange turn at the end of last week when one of the anti-corruption officials working on the case, which involves alleged kickbacks for the construction of private power stations, was found dead, hanging from a ceiling fan in a government lodge in Islamabad.