Interim report: JIT finds no clues to missing software engineer

Report submitted to IHC says letters to govt departments did not yield positive responses

ISLAMABAD: Police on Friday admitted that despite their best efforts, they have been unable to locate a man who had been picked up from the centre of the capital almost nine months ago.

Sajid Mehmood, a software engineer, had been picked up in March from his home in Sector F-10, allegedly by armed men wearing police uniforms.

An interim report of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which had been formed to probe Mehmood’s disappearance, was submitted before the Islamabad High Court by Inspector General of Islamabad Police on Friday.

The report said that no substantial progress had been made in locating the missing person and recovering him.

Petitioner Mahera Sajid through her counsel Umer Gilani had requested the IHC to direct the respondents, including the police, to recover her husband. Further, she had urged the court to direct the state to provide her family with reasonable maintenance till the state functionaries fail recover her husband, the primary bread-winner of the family.

The JITs’ report revealed that the police had sent written requests, along with the proclamation of the missing person, to all hospitals, Edhi centres, secretary health, Islamabad press club in-charge, IGs of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, AJK police, Pakistan Railways, Secretary of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) prisons with the request to ask their respective organization if any fruitful information can be found about the missing man.

After the case was registered, the JIT report read, a written request was also submitted to the Ministry of Defence to ascertain the whereabouts of Mehmood from intelligence agencies. The matter was also taken up with the concerned authorities of all hospitals and other department to trace the missing man.

Moreover, investigators wrote that heads of all police stations in adjoining district had been asked through radios to check if Mehmood was involved or arrested in any criminal case in their respective jurisdictions. A request was also made to the director general of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to check whether Mehmood was involved or arrested in any case with the investigation authority. But the FIA too said they had no clue about it.

A written request sent to FIA to check Mehmood’s travel history showed that he had not travelled abroad since October 30, 2015. Further, Mehmood’s phone records did not show any evidence which may suggest he had contacts with either terrorists or criminals.

However, the JIT said they were still waiting for a reply to the written request to the State Bank for details of Mehmood’s bank accounts.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2016.