Sit-in camp: New entrants swell missing persons’ camp

Families from Parachinar, Kurrum and Malakand join camp with glimmer of hope.

ISLAMABAD:

Scores of men and women of the same ethnicity, group together at the missing persons’ sit-in camp while Amna Janjua reminds them time and again that they will not leave the camp until their loved-ones are released. 

The Janjua-led missing persons’ camp has been continuously swelling since its establishment last week.

The fresh entrants – hopeful for their loved-ones’ release – are from Parachinar, Kurrum Agency and families of people missing from the areas of the Malakand division.

An old woman from Dir Maidan (Banday) in Malakand – carrying her two grandsons, Adeel (8) and Abu Bakar (4) – came to the camp looking for her son Mairaj Mohammad two days ago. The woman says her family surrendered before the military during the operation against terrorists in Malakand in 2009.

“Mohammad, along with his two nephews, was taken into custody by the security forces. The two boys were released after eight and 15 months, respectively, but my son has still not been released,” says the woman.

Initially, Mohammad’s two minor sons were also on the list of suspected militants wanted by the military. Their names were removed after the security officials saw them, their grandmother tells The Express Tribune.

Since their house was demolished during the military operation, Mohammad’s family has been living in a cowshed with animals in dire poverty.

“We were able to erect a mud room just recently,” she says.

Staying at the camp with the kids, she hopes, her voice would be heard soon.

Another woman from Batkhela, Malakand division, has been waiting for her missing husband. Noor Mohammad went missing from the Adiala jail two years ago. “He was sent to prison by court five years ago and went missing from outside the jail after he was released on bail,” says the woman who remains clueless about her spouse’s whereabouts since that day.

In a small group of men, who recently arrived from Upper Kurram Agency, Gulzar Jan’s brother sits quietly, staring at the cameras, holding no pictures. His brother went missing from Peshwar along with a cousin in March 2010 near Matana.

“He was on his way to see off his cousin to the UAE. Their cell phones suddenly went off. We got to know from certain sources that they were in the custody of security agencies for investigations and would be released soon,” he says, clueless as to why his brother was being interrogated.

Most people at the missing persons’ camp, when questioned, failed to provide information regarding the activities of their missing relatives that could count as evidence for the security agencies against them.

For their mothers, brothers, sisters, fathers and wives, the missing were either innocent or were picked up in ‘misunderstanding’. So was the case of Muhammad Shehzad.

“My brother had only returned from Spain for our sister’s marriage. He was picked up in our presence by the security officials who identified themselves as personnel of Special Investigation Unit of the Federal Investigation Agency,” says Shehzad’s brother.

He believes that security agencies picked up his brother mistakenly in place of somebody else. “How could he [Shehzad] possibly be involved in any suspicious activity,” the brother wonders.

And continues to wonder like the many others sitting in this camp.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 22^nd, 2012.