7 years after Rizwan went to receive Benazir at Karsaz, his family still waits to welcome him home

Rizwan went missing along with 21 others on October 18, 2007. But unlike some, he has not been found since

KARACHI: For Malik Rizwan Awan's family, a teenager who went missing seven years ago during the bomb attacks on Benazir Bhutto’s caravan in Karachi, every single day seems like the tragic October 18, 2007.

“It has been seven long, hard years waiting for him. We still don’t know where he is. Every day for us is like October 18,” said his elder brother, a former PPP activist, Farooq Awan while speaking to The Express Tribune.

As the PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto prepares for a massive rally at the Mazar-e-Quaid, and promises a historic jalsa on Saturday on the seventh anniversary of the bombing, which left at least 180 people dead, Awan has only one request for young Bhutto scion.

“If he or the party has any information about my brother, please share it with us. Please let us know what happened to him.”

Recalling events of that tragic day, Awan says his younger brother Rizwan, who had passed his matriculation, was excited to see Benazir Bhutto return to the country. He attended the massive welcoming rally along with his brothers and other family members.

The older Awan remembers that one other other brother was with Rizwan when the first blast occurred. But when the second took place and panic took over, Rizwan was nowhere to be found. “All our other family members and relatives were safe but we could not find Rizwan.”

Awan, a former deputy information secretary of the party’s Sindh Peoples Youth Organisation, claims that as many as 21 people went missing during the incident.

“Some were found later on, but many, including my brother, have still not been found.”

Over the years, they visited jails across the country, paid several trips to the government hospitals and went through the Edhi morgue. “We even took our DNA samples but nothing came of it.”