He approached several journalists in Multan this week and told them the same story which was carried in some local newspapers and aired by some TV channels.
The man identifying himself as Muhammad Babar had been interviewed by Ahteshamul Haq, a reporter, some nine months ago. “He told me that he was a fugitive. He said he had escaped from a forced labour camp and was now looking for his family in Faisalabad,” Haq said. He said on Thursday morning he was surprised to see the man narrating the same story, but this time with hi sfamily supposedly in Multan. He said he had found out that the man had recounted the same tale to journalists and locals in Gujranwala.
“He was staying with a family in Samundri when I met him and covered his story,” Haq said. He said the family fed him for several days before he disappeared and next appeared on TV screens from Multan yesterday.
City police station house officer Humayum Saif said he was informed about the man and that he had been tricking people in different places. He said he would look into the matter. He was contacted again for information regarding any action he had taken but was not available.
At Multan, Muhammad Babar told the reporters that his parents’ name was Abdul Rasheed and Asya. He said he was a Jalalpur Pir Wala resident and had been kidnapped 18 years ago from his family home near the shrine of Hazrat Pir Kital. He said that he had been held at a forced labour camp in Chitral where he was made to work for long hours. He said he only got two meals a day in return for the work and was kept in very shabby conditions.
“He approached me through a showroom owner who had been keeping him for several days at his place,” said Javaid Iqbal, a local journalist. He said earlier Babar was living at a CNG pump.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 18th, 2011.
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