Whereabouts of missing Jamshoro journalist still unknown

Despite month-long protests, family is no closer to finding Ghulam Rasool Burfat, two others

HYDERABAD: The whereabouts of a journalist and his two relatives who were whisked away on August 4 from their residences in Jamshoro district remain unknown, despite the family continuing protests for their return for a month.

Ghulam Rasool Burfat, a sub-editor at a Sindhi daily, his cousin and National Bank of Pakistan officer Zaheer Hussain Burfat and their nephew Asif Burfat were allegedly taken away by a law enforcement agency.

All of them are family members of self-exiled nationalist leader Shafi Muhammad Burfat, who heads the banned Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz party. Dozens of female members and children of the family held a protest on Wednesday outside the Hyderabad Press Club carrying photographs of the three missing men.



Mumtaz Burfat, wife of Ghulam Rasool and sister of Shafi Muhammad, who led the protesters, appealed to the LEAs to show mercy on their family members and release them. "They have never been involved in any criminal or anti-state activities," she claimed.

The family says that their only sin is their relationship with Shafi Muhammad. His party has been blamed for carrying out cracker attacks on railway tracks and power pylons as well as similar attacks in cities during national day celebrations.

Mukhtiar Burfat, a cousin, told The Express Tribune that other missing persons from Jamshoro have either returned or have had telephonic conversation with their families during their captivity. But he worried that neither have any of his family returned nor have they been allowed to contact the family.