Another missing PTI activist has returned home, SHC told

The Sindh High Court on Monday disposed of a petition against the disappearance of another Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf social media activist after it was informed that he had returned home.

Earlier, petitioner Rashid Rauf had submitted that his brother Mohammad Salman Khan, who was a member of the PTI’s social media team, had gone to the Karachi Press Club on March 31 to attend a protest demonstration against the illegal detention of social media activists of the party but he had not returned.

He had further submitted that police were informed about the disappearance but they refused to register an FIR of the incident. He had said he had apprehension about the life of his brother who was not being traced and alleged that he might be kept in unlawful detention by law enforcement agencies.

The court had been requested to direct the police and other law enforcement agencies to produce the detainee before the court and provide details of cases if any against him. During the hearing on Monday, the petitioner’s counsel informed the high court that the missing social media activist had returned home and he did not want to press the petition. A division bench, headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto, disposed of the petition as it was not pressed by the petitioner.

The court in meantime directed federal and provincial law officers to file a progress report with regard to the whereabouts of other missing persons who had reportedly disappeared from different parts of the city.

Petitioners submitted that Naeem Ahmed, Hafiz Arsalan, Bilal Khan, Naveed Iqbal and Saleemur Rehman were allegedly picked up by personnel of law enforcement agencies during raids and their whereabouts were still unknown.

The court expressed dissatisfaction over the investigation officers’ reports and directed the federal and provincial law officers to submit detailed reports after ascertaining information from internment centres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.