February 22, 2021
By Baseer Qalandar
PESHAWAR
“It has been six years that my son is missing and to this day I don’t know who took him and where he is now,” says the mother of Imdad Khan, one of the countless ‘missing persons’ in the country.
Imdad’s mother has joined several other family members of missing persons at a protest organized by the Awami National Party (ANP) outside the Peshawar Press Club on Monday. The party held nationwide demonstrations to express solidarity with the relatives of victims of enforced disappearance in the country.
Muhammad Ibrahim, a brother of yet another victim of enforced disappearance, told Voicepk.net that if his missing brother was wanted or involved in any criminal offense the authorities should have brought him before the court. “What kind of justice is being meted out to us,” he says.
Samar Haroon Bilour, the ANP provincial party spokesperson and member of the provincial assembly, said enforced disappearances have torn apart families. “It’s easy to say the words missing person but only those can really feel the grief and sorrow that comes with the forced disappearance of a loved one in the family,” she says.
Senior ANP leader Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, who led the demonstration, demanded the federal government demanded recovery of thousands of missing persons from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. The ANP leadership also called for the release of ANP Balochistan provincial spokesperson Asad Achakzai who had been reported missing recently.
