Two months on, missing medical student still untraced

Despite the passage of a little over two months, police are totally clueless about the whereabouts of Urooj Siddiqui, a third-year medical student of Hamdard University.

This was disclosed at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Saturday afternoon by Anisa Waliullah and Rana Asif of the Human Rights Defenders, and Maqbool Siddiqui, father of Urooj.

Urooj has been missing since March 9 when she went over to a beauty parlour in the vicinity in Gulistan-e-Jauher with her father’s permission. She never returned home after that.

Maqbool Siddiqui, the girl’s father, told the media that he went over to file the FIR. The attitude of the police, he said, was very non-cooperative and the police official concerned had the audacity to say to him, “If your daughter has eloped and got married, you will have the marriage certificate and then this FIR will be infructuous.”

Pointing out the negligence and foot dragging of the concerned police officials, Anisa Waliullah made an impassioned appeal to the Sindh chief minister and the police officials concerned to give the matter the urgency it warrantee and recover the young girl.

She also said that she would suggest the formation of a commission to determine as to why the lost girl could not be traced despite all the advances in investigation methods.

Rana Asif Habib, advocate and president of The Initiator, said, “Had investigations been carried out with modern scientific and forensic methods, things would surely have been different.” He blamed it all on the “Thana Culture”, “police arrogance”, and constant shuffling and reshuffling of officials.

He said, “We appeal to the prime minister and the chief justice of Pakistan to attach special urgency to the matter. This is a test case for the Karachi police and the administration.” The parents of the unfortunate girl must be kept abreast of developments, he said and lamented that the police did not budge till this matter came to the press.

Maqbool Siddiqui said, “Police officials kept extending assurances to us but to no avail.” He appealed to the prime minister, the chief minister and the governor of Sindh, and the chief justice of Pakistan to help bring his painful ordeal to a quick end.

He also appealed to his missing daughter to set up contact with him wherever she was as her mother was seriously ill.