2 missing Karachi men found in Balochistan jail


July 07, 2010

KARACHI: Two men whose names were included in the list of missing persons have been found in jail in Balochistan.

The young men, Habibullah and Muhammad Safdar, from Gulbahar and New Karachi had vanished mysteriously in June 2009. Their families kept searching for them for around six months. Finally, on January 19, 2010, the Supreme Court took suo motu notice of their disappearance and asked the police to file a kidnapping case. The court also ordered the police to start investigations and look for the missing men.

However, a day after the FIR was registered, the Balochistan police in Khuzdar claimed that both men were in their custody on charges of possessing explosives. The police claimed that both were suspected to be involved in bomb blast cases.

An inmate from the Khuzdar Jail who was released recently told the missing men’s families that both of them were detained in the jail. Meanwhile, the Karachi police went to Khuzdar and took down the suspects’ statements. They have submitted a report to higher officials, claiming that the men are innocent.

On May 4, Justice Javed Iqbal had directed the Attorney General to present all previous cases of missing persons before a judicial commission formed to address the issue. Sindh’s home secretary Kamran Dost appeared before the bench and informed the judges that there were nine cases of missing persons from the province out of which, six people have been found. According to an investigation team, two of the men are associated with dangerous militant groups.

Hafiz Jan Muhammad Khan is associated with the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Abdul Kareem Mehmood is a close relative of Yusuf Ramzi and Khalid bin Sheikh. No one knows where Sikander Akash Malah is.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 8th, 2010.

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