An incomplete Eid: Families of missing persons yearn to be reunited with loved ones

KP Home and Tribal Affairs department produces 4 lists that trace whereabouts of missing persons being detained in KP.

PESHAWAR:

While the rest of the nation celebrates Eid, families of hundreds of missing persons in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa are miserable on the occasion as they yearn to be reunited with their loved ones.

“People are busy celebrating in one way or another, but we are only thinking of the safe recovery of missing family members. Whether they are safe, dead or alive we do not know,” Ghazi tells The Express Tribune. His cousins Muhammad Javed and Muhammad Hussain have been missing since 2007.

Ghazi, whose family belongs to Kurram Agency, says they have searched the entire country for Javed and Hussain, but remain clueless over their whereabouts.

“Both of them have small children who are anxiously awaiting the return of their fathers. They have no interest in celebrating Eid,” he adds. “We have approached the high court to ensure their safe recovery, but little progress has been made.”

Pashmina Bibi alleges that her son Attaur Rehman was picked by officials of the Mohmand Rifles on February 7 after delivering a Friday sermon. The missing person holds a Masters degree in Islamic Studies from the University of Peshawar.

“This Eid, the whole family is constantly staring at the door in the hope that he will walk in and join us, but there is little hope,” she says.

Nargis Bibi, whose sons Qadar Shah and Asghar Shah were allegedly picked up by security forces from Dairay village of Swat, echoes the views of the other families, saying she has no interest in anything else apart from the recovery of her children.

“Whenever there is a festive occasion like Eid or a marriage, it seems like my sons are standing in front of my eyes, but in reality we do not know where they are. We should at least be told whether they are alive or dead,” she says.

The K-P Home and Tribal Affairs department has so far produced four lists that traced the whereabouts of missing persons being detained in notified internment centres around the province. They show that around 1,000 people are being held in these centres and the government is continuing efforts to trace the remaining missing people for whom petitions have been filed in the Peshawar
High Court.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 6^th, 2014.