ISLAMABAD: A petition seeking the recovery of Hafiz Iqrar Abbasi, who went missing on April 14 from the suburbs of the capital, was filed in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday.
This is the second petition filed in a month for the recovery of a missing person. A similar petition, filed last month for the recovery of Mohammad Arif, a school owner, was disposed of by the IHC after the additional attorney general informed the court that an application for his recovery was filed with the ‘inquiry commission on enforced disappearances’.
Iqrar Abbasi, a local leader of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), was the chairman of Iqra School System, and a prayer leader at Jamia Masjid Bilal situated in the Jinnah Town suburb of Islamabad.
ASWJ had also staged a protest outside the Lal Masjid on April 18 to protest the ‘abduction’ of Iqrar Abbasi.
The petition for Abbasi’s recovery alleged that certain officials from a secret agencies picked him up from Rawat while he was on way home.
“His cellphone was last traced to Sihala,” said Abdul Rehman, the petitioner and Iqrar’s elder brother.
Sihala is a heavily policed area which also houses a police training college.
According to the petition, Mr Iqrar has been kept somewhere in the jurisdiction of Sihala Police Station.
The petitioner said an FIR in this regard had been lodged with the police station but his whereabouts were still not known.
The petition also mentioned that Iqrar Abbasi had contested last election from PF-45 Abbottabad as independent candidate.
He was planning to contest from the same constituency and was to negotiate with the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) for its support but he was picked up, said Rehman. The seat was vacated by Sardar Mehtab Abbasi after assuming the office of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor.
He said: “The eyewitnesses said that my brother was picked up by some persons in plain clothes.”
The petition requested the court to direct the respondents, interior and defence secretaries and IG Islamabad police, to produce Iqrar Abbasi before the court and subsequently order them to release him from unlawful custody.