Report reveals all: ‘Police gave up on missing persons’

Eight yet to be traced after their disappearances.

HYDERABAD: Around eight missing persons from the Hyderabad division have still not been traced, according to a report that the Hyderabad range police submitted to the Commission on Missing Persons.

The commission had sought details of 17 missing persons from the police, as the investigation into the mysterious disappearance of eight people was stopped over the last number of years, only to be resumed after the commissioner took notice.

In his report, submitted a few days ago, Hyderabad DIG Sanaullah Abbassi added four more names to the list, to take the total to 21. However, 13 of them have been traced, with five having returned home, while two are now living in Dera Bugti and one in Dubai.

One of them, Muzaffar Bhutto, a leader of banned outfit Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz, was found dead in May, 2012, 15 months after his disappearance.

Out of the remaining, Abdullah Bahadur is in detention in an army camp in Lakki Marwat, Mushtaq Soomro and Bachal Thehemore are imprisoned in Nara Jail, Hyderabad, while the family of Rahimullah Soomro has denied that he is missing.

Out of the nine that have not been traced so far, three of them - Ghulam Rasool Abbassi, Muhammad Rafique Baloch and Shafi Muhammad Brohi - disappeared as far back as 1995, 2004 and 2005, respectively. The FIRs of their disappearance were lodged in Sakhi Pir, Hussainabad and Baldia police stations in Hyderabad.

Azmat Hussain Gujjar went missing in May, 2008, Imamuddin Lashari in August, 2009, Nabi Bux Solangi in November, 2011, Muhammad Usman Shaikh in September, 2012, and Adnan Gul in October, 2012. Their FIRs were lodged in different police stations of Hyderabad and Dadu.

The case of Adnan Gul’s disappearance was registered only four days ago at the Phuleli police station in Hyderabad. “The case was registered when the DIG inquired about the matter after the commission sought a report on Gul,” a police officer told The Express Tribune.

The police disposed off all FIRs of the missing men, except Gul’s, because the matters were not being pursued in the court by the complainants. However, additional DIG Sikandar Mangi told The Express Tribune that the DIG has ordered the concerned policemen to restart investigation to trace these missing persons.

The numbers on the list are contradicted by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s regional incharge Dr Ashothama Lohano, according to whom, only two persons from Hyderabad were missing. One of them, Mushtaq Soomro, was produced in court in February and was subsequently sent to jail.

“Many of the names cited in the police list do not fall in the category of ‘enforced disappearance’ based on the patterns of their disappearance,” he told The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 12^th, 2014.