Missing boy: Stowaway’s friend detained by intelligence agencies?

Ali Jamshed, the missing boy in the stowaway case, is said to be with intelligence agencies, alleges father.

LAHORE: Ali Jamshed, the missing boy in the stowaway case, is said to be with intelligence agencies, his father Jamshed Ahmed told The Express Tribune last Saturday.

He said North Cantonment police investigation officer, Syed Zahid Hussain, had told him on January 27 that he had learnt through his sources that Ahmed’s son was being detained for questioning.

However, he said, he had not yet gotten an official confirmation. “I contacted the airport security and the police high ups but none of them confirmed the report,” he said. He said he was last contacted by the airport officials on January 22. Since then, he said, no one had established contact. When he tried to ask them about his son’s whereabouts they did not come up with a satisfactory response. “I don’t mind agencies keeping my son for questioning,” he said, “but they should let me know that he is in their custody.”

Muhammad Siddique, father of Qasim Siddique who had died after falling from the landing gear of a plane, said no one had yet informed him about the findings of the police inquiry in his child’s killing. He said he believed the airport security was responsible for his son’s death. “The child might have thought that he could fly to Dubai by holding to the landing gear of the plane but the airport security should have spotted him and stopped him,” he said. “Why weren’t they doing their job?” he asked.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2011.