Missing bureaucrat returns home a day after disappearance

Human rights secretary, who is being investigated for corruption, had disappeared on Friday

KARACHI: Sindh Human Rights secretary Dr Badar Jameel Mandhro returned home on Saturday night after going missing a day earlier.

East district SSP Tanveer Aslam Odho confirmed Mandhro's return, saying that he had come home as mysteriously as he had disappeared. According to Odho, the bureaucrat informed the police that he had been abducted by unidentified men, who questioned him before letting him go. Mandhro reportedly told the police he would discuss the incident with them in detail later.

Meanwhile, Ferozabad SHO Aurangzeb Khattak said that Mandhro's wife had informed the police that he had returned to his residence in PECHS on Saturday night. He added that she told them he was sleeping and would record his statement to the police on Sunday. However, the human rights secretary had not given a statement until the filing of this report.

Mandhro's wife had stated on Saturday that he had gone to work at the Sindh Secretariat on Friday morning as per routine, calling her later to tell her he was going to Defence Housing Authority. When he failed to return home that night, she informed senior government officials about his disappearance.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had sought reports from Sindh IGP Dr Syed Kaleem Imam, the Sindh Anti-Corruption Establishment chairman Muhammad Waseem and other relevant officials regarding the secretary's mysterious disappearance.

The Sindh Anti-Corruption Establishment denied arresting Mandhro, maintaining that he had acquired interim bail in the case registered against him.

The agency added that Badar had not approached its officials regarding the case against him.

Mandhro is under investigation by the National Accountability Bureau over the alleged illegal sale of land.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2020.