Amina Masood Janjua warns staging a sit-in in Red Zone, for recovery of missing persons, if a viable strategy was not devised by Aug 14
ISLAMABAD, July 29 (SABAH): Defense of Human Rights Pakistan (DHR), an organization vying for recovery of missing persons, warned staging a sit-in in the Red Zone, for recovery of their loved-ones, if a viable strategy was not devised by August 14 by the government.
DHR organized a protest in D-Chowk Islamabad on completion of 17 years of enforced disappearance of Masood Janjua. Heirs of the disappeared people and representatives of the civil society, from every nook and corner of the country participated thereof.
While addressing the participants, DHR Pakistan Chairperson Amina Masood Janjua emphasized the government authorities needed to come-up with tangible measures to tackle the issue of disappearances. DHR Pakistan had organized several protests on different areas of Islamabad including the D-Chowk; whereas Amina Masood Janjua and relatives of the missing persons once again initiated a sit-in demanding recovery of the missing. The affectees were of the view that Zahid Ameen was abducted from within his home on Adiyala Road in 2014; whereas, his juvenile brother got disappeared in 2021. In addition, Engineer Sajid Mehmood and Attiqur Rehman, who severed Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan as a PS, had been forcibly disappeared; whereas, families of Feroz Baloch, Naveed But, Shahid Manzur Qasim were awaiting return of their loved-ones.
140 families belonging to Mohmand District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) stage protests on daily basis for recovery of their relatives and against the disappearances and even they had organized a sit-in in front of KP Provincial Assembly for 40 days in the scorching weather, but their cries fell on deaf ears. An old woman, Sabiha Begum, from Peshawar had been awaiting return of his son for 20 years and the commission dealing with the missing persons had not told her even if the boy was alive or not.
Amina Masood Janjua raised question as to how long would the mothers be tolerating the pathos and added that she could see people suffering from the same issue of missing their closed-ones. She added that the situation was quite same in all four provinces of the country where a large number of families had their loved-ones disappeared and the families were not sure as to when they would meet with them.
Amina Masood Janjua emphasized that the government had to recover those people with some strong strategies and showed the resolve of organizing protests unless and until their relatives were recovered. She noted that the time was ripe for the government to fulfill its promise of recovering the persons. She said that if our near and dear ones have committed any crime then they should be presented in the courts and if they are innocent then they should immediately be released. Amina Masood Janjua demanded of the government to immediately ensure release of all the missing persons and close the secret internment centers being run under the security forces.
The protest demonstration was also addressed by senior journalist Shakil Ahmed Turabi, Shahid Manzoor, Sultan Mahmood and wife of the missing Dr. Umar Awwab.