Special circumstances: Navy employee still missing after eight months

The naval intelligence leads, but they cannot be shared with anyone, says a navy officer.

KARACHI: Eight months have passed since the disappearance of a civilian employee of Pakistan Navy, who went missing on the evening of February 19.

According to Hafiz Omer, the son, Abdul Rauf left his house, in Naval Quarters, Agra Taj Colony, at five in the evening to visit his tenants in Machar Colony. “His cell phone was turned off at 9:30 pm and we haven’t heard from him since,” he said.

Rauf had been working at the sub-depot of Pakistan navy for 20 years. His colleagues remember him in kind words. “It has been such a long time since we have been working together. He was more of a friend than a teacher,” said one of them. “We cannot reach any conclusion regarding what may have happened to him.”

An FIR was registered at Kalri police station but the police cannot give any reason for Rauf’s disappearance. According to SHO Ashfaq Baloch, the police are also in touch with naval intelligence and are doing what they can to find him.

They said that if Rauf was dead then his body would have been found, but since that did not happen, it suggests that he is still alive.

The naval police are also looking into the matter according to a navy officer. “We have found a few leads,” he said. “But we cannot disclose them to anyone, not even the family.”  However, the family still hope that one day Rauf will come back. “We don’t even know if he is alive or dead,” said Omer. “But we hope that a day will come when he will be with us once again.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2011.