Missing persons: 'Silence' befalls family as missing son returns home

Canada return Omar Mehmood Khan was abducted by the agencies on March 10 near Orchid Scheme in Islamabad.


Azam Khan March 17, 2012

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court’s (SC) suo motu notice on missing person cases yielded yet another recovery. Omar Mehmood, returned home after 'disappearing' for six days in agency detention, his counsel informed the Supreme Court on Saturday.

Omar’s family, who recently returned from Canada, had informed the Human Rights Cell of the apex court about his disappearance through a letter. They wrote that Omar was abducted by the agencies on March 10 near the Orchid Scheme in Islamabad.

On the complaint of his father, Mehmood Ahmad Khan, a three member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry took suo motu notice of the incident and directed Inspector General of Police Islamabad and Attorney General of Pakistan Maulvi Anwarul Haq to submit a report of the incident by March 17 and present the abductee before the court on March 19.

The family’s counsel, Advocate Tariq Asad, confirming Omer’s return, said that due to threats by unknown officials, the abductee’s family members were reluctant to share any details of the incident. The family was so scared, that they did not feel comfortable confiding the details of Omar's disappearance with their legal counsel. Out of fear, the family had switched off their cell phone.

Earlier during Friday’s hearing, Advocate Asad, the counsel for missing persons, had told the court that Omar was picked up by the intelligence agencies because he used to serve food to the families at the missing persons’ camp at D-Chowk (Islamabad’s Parade Ground) in front of the Parliament.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Inspector General (IG) Police Islamabad Bani Amin on Saturday said that Omar’s recovery was possible due to police’s efforts. Responding to a query, Amin said that he would share the details of Omar’s abduction before the SC on Monday.

It must be noted that initially the Islamabad police was reluctant to register the FIR of the incident.

The letter by Omar’s father had suggested that Omar was abducted in the same manner as used by agencies in picking up other missing persons. Men driving two double cabins with tinted glasses, a black Corolla, a white Suzuki Baleno and a Suzuki Mehran picked up the boy in front of his father, mother and a younger brother.

During Friday’s hearing of the 11 Adiala missing prisoners case, the CJ, addressing the AG and Raja Irshad, counsel for ISI and MI, said that this time a man was abducted right under the nose of the federal government.

Raja Irshad rejected the allegations, stating the military intelligence agencies were not involved in people going missing or being abducted, adding that it was amazing how the blame was being leveled against agencies. He said that India’s intelligence agency RAW and Israel’s Mossad were also active in Pakistan. Omer’s father had told the court that they had tried pursuing the vehicle at the time of the incident, but were stopped by the (agencies) officials at Faizabad Bridge Rawalpindi (near ISI’s Hamza Camp).

COMMENTS (14)

Abdullah | 11 years ago | Reply

My bro also missing from 27 april.....

ZYX | 12 years ago | Reply

ET....can you plz tell me what was wrong with this that you refused to allow it to be posted? For a supposedly "liberal" media outlet, you people are extremely heavy handed with your "moderation".

The agencies are at fault 1000%! If it wasn't them that abducted this boy, then where the heck are they when, according to them, RAW and Mossad are kidnapping our citizens from our major cities?! They've gone too far now....they must be tried for kidnapping and given the ultimate penalty given to kidnappers. The rule of law must apply to ALL. I too have been hounded by the agencies at one point simply because I was conducting a research paper on the traffic at the ports...these idiots didn't even bother to come speak to me, they simply went around threatening everyone I worked with until I found out that our stupid agency people were doing this. After contacting the Commander for the area through a more senior army officer, the agency was terribly embarrassed that they didn't simply speak to me and instead wasted countless man-hours terrorizing a group of highly patriotic Pakistanis who were working on the development of our infrastructure. Its amazing how stupid these agency types can be...just listen to Barrister Saif when he speaks to Talal Bugti and you can see the bravado these guys are accustomed to. We need to reign them in and teach them how to use their brains a little better.

VIEW MORE COMMENTS
Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ