'He said he would be home by midnight': Karachi family pray for safe recovery of missing son

27-year-old Saqib Jamal went missing when his friend's apartment was raided on the second day of Eid

KARACHI: This particular house, in Gulzar-e-Hijri, wore an abandoned look, like someone had pulled away an important part of the house, like there was a piece of importance missing. Twenty-seven-year-old Saqib Jamal's frightened mother turns to look longingly at the entrance every time she hears the slightest of noise.

"I told him not leave, I told him to stay home and sleep. He was very tired, you see. The whole first day of Eid he spent distributing sacrificial meat to our neighbours. He hadn't even changed his clothes yet..." she said, her voice drifting into a whisper.

On September 3, 2017, Saqib told his parents he was going to his friends house for a barbecue dinner and would be back at midnight. "He had just come back from his in-laws house with his wife and said he had to go to his friends house for dinner." Distraught the mother continued, "He was exhausted and I kept telling him not to go. I told him to rest for a while before leaving, but he insisted he wouldn't have the energy to go out after a nap."

Once he reached his friend's house, Saqib fell asleep waiting for the barbecue to start. At approximately 10pm on September 3, 2017, the friend's house was raided by men in civilian clothes accompanied by policemen claiming to be from Sindh’s Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD). Saqib, along with the others at the apartment, were taken away for allegedly maintaining links with a new militant group named Ansar-ul-Sharia Pakistan (ASP).

“We kept calling Saqib all evening to ask when he would be back, but he never answered his phone," she recalled. A little past midnight, a friend of Saqib's came to the house to let his parents know that their son had been taken away.



Saqib's father Kaukab Jamal was as perturbed by the news as his wife when he said, “We have forgotten how to sleep because it’s been days now since our son's disappearance. No one has said a thing about taking him. We only know that men claiming to be law enforcers have taken him. Where to? Only God knows.” he added.

When asked about the allegations, Jamal said, “Saqib can’t be associated to any militant group, and if God forbid he is, then he should be presented to the court so that a fair trial can be held.”

Speaking to The Express Tribune, his mother added, “My son got married two years ago and was holding two jobs to make ends meet. He didn't have time to be part of any group let alone an extremist group.”



When Saqib's family tried registering an FIR at the local police station, they were strictly told that ‘no case can be lodged for Saqib’s recovery because agencies are involved.’

Following the attack on Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader Khawaja Izharul Hassan on the day of Eid, law enforcement agencies have conducted several raids in and around Karachi. Law enforcers arrested a number of people in connection with ASP but have yet to disclose any information to the media.

Speaking to The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity, a senior police official claimed that the ongoing raids were taking place by the military intelligence, including Saqib Jamal's case.

One of his friends recalls that Saqib was part of a leftist student organisation trying to restore campus democracy in the city. “Anyone can go through his Facebook profile and see if he ever held extremist view. He did not. He was part of the secular, leftist student group to counter the militants’ narrative. How can he be linked to some newly formed religious outfit?” said his friend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

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According to the Sindh Human Rights Defenders (SHRD) last month alone, 83 people went missing in Sindh, bringing the issue of enforced disappearances to the limelight, forcing people to question the jurisdiction of authorities in the province.

Saqib’s family says they will reach out to human rights organisations and approach the court if they are unable to recover their son.

Enforced disappearances are ‘condemned as a denial of the purposes of the Charter of the United Nations and as a grave and flagrant violation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ by the UN.

On her way to a Human Rights organisation today, all Saqib's mother said was, "He said he would be home by midnight. He said he would come home."