Rickshaw driver refuses to identify abducted student

Haris Javed was thrown out of a van after being set on fire on Thursday night.

KARACHI: The case of the abduction of an Iqra University student took another turn when a rickshaw driver refused to identify the student in his fresh statement to the police on Saturday.

Final-year engineering student Haris Javed, 22, went missing on February 16 after he left home for the university. Late on Thursday, he was thrown out of a hi-roof van in Mehmoodabad after being set on fire. He is under treatment at the burns ward of Civil hospital. A note was found on him, saying that if the 'military operation' did not end, other students would be treated in the same manner. Subsequently, officials of the Counter-Terrorism Department and Special Investigation Unit also joined the police investigation.

On Saturday, the police managed to trace the rickshaw driver, Fayyaz, who had earlier claimed that he had dropped Javed and a girl off in Gizri a few days ago. They recorded his statement in the FIR but this time, he refused to identify the student. "We treated him [Fayyaz] politely and asked him to tell us the truth but he did not cooperate," Baloch Colony DSP Shafqat Chandio told The Express Tribune. "He wants to continue working and support his family instead of having to visit the police station and court regularly."

The police have yet to access Javed's cellphone, with his family claiming that he had lost it. However, they have obtained his cellphone records.

Police officials also complained that since they were unable to question the student, they had not been able to make sketches of the suspects and could not verify his claims. "We visited him a number of times in the hospital but found him asleep each time," the officer explained.

The police suspect that the incident could have been motivated by personal enmity. "We are sure that Javed knows the suspects. He is not cooperating with us at the moment," Chandio said. Meanwhile, Javed's family said it was clear that the incident had nothing to do with a girl. "The rickshaw driver himself visited Haris at the hospital with the police and refused to identify him in front of the officials," Malik Sajid, Javed's uncle, told The Express Tribune. "Javed did not have his cellphone when he was abducted but it went missing during his disappearance and we only have a SIM card now."

Published in The Express Tribune, February 22^nd, 2015.