WEEKLY PULSE
Congratulations to aging Professor Waheeduddin, whose son, missing for last over four months has been traced by the government agencies. He is safe and sound, and not killed in a police encounter.
Osma Waheed, the youngest son of Professor Waheeduddin, a senior educationist, had gone missing four months ago when he went to Karachi cantonment railway station to drop his father. His family members immediately contacted the Al Falah police station, but the police as usual refused to lodge the missing report.
Osmas family moved an application to the Sindh High Court, which was being heard by a division bench as the Rawalpindi police claimed to have arrested Osama and eight other terrorists involved in various terrorist attacks including suicide attack on Danish embassy Islamabad, and killing of Lt General Mushtaq Ahmed.
The police also claimed to have recovered detonators, jackets used in suicide bombings and other heavy weapons from the possession of the so-called terrorists.
This fresh episode shows that nothings has changed vis-à-vis the missing persons phenomenon. There is only change of face. It was General rtd Pervez Musharraf till August last year, and now it is Asif Zardari. Everything introduced by Musharraf is being obediently toed by Zardari.
An investigative report prepared by a team of weekly Pulse finds the entire story narrated by the Rawalpindi police about the arrest of so-called terrorists, frivolous, concocted and devoid of truth.
Osma Waheed, a software engineer by profession was picked by the secret agencies on September 14, 2008 from cantonment railway station. He is the younger brother of senior cardiologist Dr Akmal Waheed, and late Dr Arshad Waheed, who had been arrested by Karachi police in same fashion a few years back on the charge of providing medical treatment to the accused involved in attack on former corps commander Karachi, Lt General Ahsan Saleem Hayat.
An anti terrorist convicted the two brothers and handed down a rigorous imprisonment of total 18 years, however an appellant bench of the Sindh High Court over ruled the ATC judgment and exonerated them on the basis of lack of evidence.
The two brothers were also kept in illegal detention for several days, and when their family members went to the court, the police showed their arrest from Malir area.
Dr Arshad Waheed, an active member of the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association, was later killed in a US missile attack in Wana last year where he went to participate in medical relief mission of his organization.
Osama too was kept in illegal detention for over four months. His arrest might not have been shown if the Islamabad High Court had not issued strict orders to the state lawyer to tell the court about Dr Abdul Razzak, a senior Pakistan railway medical officer, who had been kidnapped by secret agencies many months ago.
The state lawyer told the court last week that the whereabouts of Dr. Abdul Razzak would be known with a couple of days. However, senior Supreme Court advocate, Akram Sheikh, who was representing Dr Razzaks family told the court that according to his information, Dr. Razzak had been handed over to anti-terrorism cell of Punjab by the secret agencies.
His apprehensions proved true when just a day after, Rawalpindi police showed the arrest of Dr. Razzak, and eight others, including Osama Waheed.
The DIG Rawalpindi who told the newsmen about arrest of terrorists at a press conference could not reply to various queries. If the detained terrorists were so trained and well equipped even with suicide bombing jackets, why didnt they resist? Were all the terrorists so weak that they had informed the police about detonators and other weapons within a few hours.
Interestingly, the police arrested the terrorists in the morning, and by evening, they told everything to the interrogators, who managed to recover all the weapons and detonators within next one hour. Salute to the security agencies. One wishes if they show the same performance in Swat, where the government is not able to block even a FM radio station of Maulana Fazlullah.
According to the reports, Zeeshan Jalil, another detainee, had been arrested by the personnel of a secret agency on October 18, 2009 from Taj Medical Center, M.A Jinnah Road. First, the security personnel had arrested his brother Ibrahim Jalil, and forced him to phone his brother and ask him to come over there.
Ibrahim did the same, and the secret agency personnel managed to arrest Zeeshan Jalil, a former student of electrical department, NED University of Engineering and Technology Karachi. Ibrahim told weekly Pulse that his brother was arrested in front of him and in the presence of rangers and brigade police station personnel.
Zeeshans father, Mohammed Ali, a former associate professor of electrical engineering department at NED University too moved to the Sindh High Court against the illegal and unlawful action of the secret agencies, however the court as usual could not help him.
Same happened to 36-year old Sarfraz Khan, who along with his friend was abducted by secret agencies on October 17, 2008 from Ghaghar railway crossing.
Sarfrazs family came to know about his kidnapping through his friend who was released after two days on a condition that he would not tell anyone about the incident.
Sarfrazs wife, Shazia held a press conference on the very next day about the abduction of her husband and later moved to the Sindh High Court.
Shazia Sarfraz told newsmen that her husband, a graduate in petroleum engineering from a Russian university, had gone to Thatta on October 16. On his way back to home, his vehicle was fired upon by some unknown bandits near Thatta cement factory, however Sarfraz managed to escape, and reported the incident to the local police.
On October 17, he received a call from DSP Nooruddin Sanjrani who told him that the bandits had been arrested, and he had to come over to identify them.
Sarfraz along with one of his friends left home for Thatta, however the security agencies personnel intercepted his vehicle at Ghaghar crossing, and arrested him along with his friend, who later was released.
Ironically, the Islamabad High Court did not bother to ask the state lawyer that if the nine terrorists were arrested last week, then who had been holding up for last four months?
Should the families of these terrorists wait for Justice Iftikhar Chaudry or join hands with Baloch militants or Baitullah Mehsud? The honourable Law Minister, Mr. Farooq Naik, would you please reply to these questions?