Camped: In search of their loved ones - some have clues, others just allege agencies

The families of missing persons camp in front of the parliament pleading for justice.

ISLAMABAD:

At their newly established camp in front of the parliament, the families of missing persons have more women and children than men.

There are many old faces in the group, with their old demands asking the government to release their loved ones. But the group has grown since the last time. Elderly men -- mostly from southern Punjab and Karachi -- looking for their sons have joined the ranks.

Led by Amina Masood Janjua of Defence of Human Rights (DHR), the families of missing persons on Wednesday decided to stage yet another sit-in in front of the parliament and vowed to stay there till the release of their loved ones.

This group of people from the platform of DHR have been fighting for the release of missing persons for almost a decade now. “The number of missing now registered with us has reached 1,100 from all over the country,” said a volunteer working with DHR. More than 400 registered in 2011, he added.

Registered with the DHR last year, Mufti Iftikhar Ahmed’s father held his son’s NIC high. “My son was picked up from a madrassa in Bahawalpur by the intelligence agencies five months ago,” he told The Express Tribune. He worked there as a mufti.

The old man was convinced that his son was in the custody of an intelligence agency. “I am sure he is in the custody of IS men,” he said. He was referring to the Inter Services Intelligence. “The management of the madrassa told me. The intelligence officials kidnapped him.”

Shakil Khan, 22, went missing from his house in Dera Ghazi Khan last year. His father does not know exactly how he disappeared but he believes the agencies picked his son up.

“My son was a Hafiz-e-Quran and a devout Muslim. He suddenly disappeared from our house,” he said. The family was away from home when it happened.

Abdul Basit, 27, along with his cousin went ‘missing’ from Tibbiwala in Jhang District in October last year. His brother thinks Basit was “abducted” by the intelligence agencies. Basit had spent a few months with a tableeghi jamaat (a religious group) as he was interested in religious studies but he had no links with any militant organisation, said his brother. His family has not heard from him since.

Yet there were others at the sit-in camp who said they had evidence that their loved ones were in the custody of the intelligence agencies. Adeela Osaid, wife of Major (R) Osaid Zahidi, said she had come to know from “reliable contacts” in the army that her husband was in the custody of a premier intelligence agency. However, the agency officials continue to deny it, she added.

“They conveyed to us through informal channels that my husband would be released and I waited for a year but he was not,” said Adeela. She said she finally decided to join the DHR companions and filed an application with the Supreme Court recently. Maj Zahidi was picked up from Karachi in October 2010.

Addressing the families at the camp, Janjua, whose husband is missing since 2002, apologised that she could not deliver according to their hopes. However, she advised them to be patient.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2012.