A mother lodges an unusual protest for a 'routine' matter
 

 

Sunday, March 05, 2006

By Aziz Sanghur


KARACHI: The mother of a man, who has disappeared, came to register her protest at the Karachi Press Club on Saturday with a copy of the Holy Quran.
Nasima Baloch started reciting the Holy Quran in an unusual protest against the disappearance of her son, Dr. Haneef Shareef Baloch, who is also a Baloch short story writer.
According to Nasima, on November 18, 2005, Haneef was sitting at a restaurant in front of his home with a few poets and short story writers - Ghani Pahwal, Omar Kia, Aabid Haleem, Qasim Faraz, Hafeez Rauf, Jawed Aslam, Asghar Muharram and Hafeez Raheem.
Nasima claimed that at seven o'clock in the evening a white double-door pick-up vehicle stopped in front of the group and six masked men with guns alighted.
"The law enforcement agency personnel asked the names of all of the people sitting there, and once Dr. Haneef Shareef told them his name, they asked him to accompany them as their commandant had work with him. When he asked what work, they replied that he would find out everything but first needed to come with them," said Nasima.
She claimed that a witness had identified one of the armed men, who according to her, was an intelligence agency's officer.
Nasima alleged that since her son went missing, all state forces, including the Frontier Constabulary (FC) and police, had said they didn't know where he was. Ghani Pahwal, Omar Kia, Aabid Haleem, Qasim Faraz, Hafeez Rauf, Jawed Aslam, Asghar Muharram and Hafeez Raheem were witnesses to the "kidnapping", she added.
Nasima went to the police station in Ketch city to lodge an F.I.R. against the abductors, but said that the SHO refused to register an FIR, saying that he was not allowed to lodge one against the FC and secret agencies.
Haneef's mother fears that he is being tortured. "My son is the only breadwinner in the family, which is why my family is suffering from severe mental depression," she said.
Haneef has yet to be produced in any court.
Nasima urged international human rights organizations to take notice of the case and pressure the Pakistani authorities to release her son.
Nasima told the press that Haneef is a doctor by profession. He graduated from Bolan Medical College, Quetta, in 2003, and was currently was posted as a medical officer at the Rural Health Centre in Zarrain Bug, District Ketch. He was born to a poor family in 1978.


Source: DailyTimes