Azhar Mashwani, a PTI activist, lamented on Thursday his brothers’ continued disappearance since June 6 after they were purportedly snatched up by police authorities.
The father of the purported abductees, Zahoorul Hassan and Mazharul Hassan, Qazi Habibur Rehman, filed a petition for their recovery at the Lahore High Court last month. The petitioner’s attorney had claimed that the boys of his client were being held by the police in violation of the law.
Azhar claimed in a statement released today that he and his family were being “targeted” because of his support for and association with the PTI as well as his criticism of the military.
He claimed, “I have done nothing wrong and am not wanted in any case,” and mentioned that his brothers and father had also been kidnapped in the past. He added that since they vanished last month, 29 days had gone by.
Faisal Kamran, the deputy inspector general of police in Lahore, said Dawn.com that legal actions were already underway in relation to the incident, which has already been reported as a case.
He claimed that the police were actively working the matter and conducting multiple lines of investigation.
Amnesty International, a human rights organization, endorsed Azhar’s demand that his brothers return home right away.
There appears to be a pattern of forced disappearances intended to scare foreign nationals who have criticisms of the Pakistani military and administration.
The group asked that the Pakistani government “assure an effective, independent, and impartial investigation into these disappearances and disclose their whereabouts immediately.”
Additionally, it encouraged the public to write to Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi to demand their immediate release and to request that their locations be made public, that their case be investigated, and that those responsible be prosecuted.
Previous LHC sessions
The petitioner’s boys were allegedly detained by a few plainclothes officers and Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) staff, according to advocate Abuzar Salman Niazi. He further claimed that intelligence officials accompanied the police when the brothers were picked up.
The attorney had claimed that the CCTV film only featured four CTD employees; the other two were unnamed. The attorney had questioned why the two unidentified people were on the police team.
A law enforcement official testified at a subsequent hearing that she was unaware of the whereabouts of the purported abductees in two distinct reports she had filed on behalf of Military Intelligence (MI) and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
A joint investigating team was later instructed by the LHC to locate and retrieve the two brothers by June 27.
