20-hour sit-in for recovery of 'missing' young activist

Ghani Amaan Chandio was whisked away from Karachi hospital

HYDERABAD:

The people protesting alleged enforced disappearance of a nationalist worker kept Hyderabad by-pass road, connecting Karachi-Hyderabad motorway with the National Highway, blocked for20-hours on Thursday. The sit-in, called by the Sindhi Nationalist Congress and the family of the missing Ghani Amaan Chandio, started on Wednesday evening and culminated on Thursday afternoon on the police given assurance for early recovery of the young man.

Chandio's father, Amaanullah Chandio, claimed that his son was whisked away from a private hospital on Shahrah-e-Quaideen, Karachi, on October 28. His father said Chandio is a peaceful political activist and there was no reason to pick him up unlawfully as if he is a terrorist.

The congress' central organizer advocate Muhib Azad told that Chandio was attending his sister in the hospital when he was allegedly whisked away. He claimed that the young man, a university graduate, used to visit academic institutions to introduce youth to poetry of Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai.

The sit-in was also joined by the legal fraternity. The protesters dispersed after they were approached by SSP Adeel Hussain Chandio with the assurance that Chandio's recovery will be ensured in two days. Meanwhile, thousands of people, mainly those travelling in the goods transport vehicles, spent their night on the highway as the bypass road remained blocked. Even the residents of housing schemes and apartments located along the bypass road faced problems commuting.