‘Samar Abbas has no link with other missing activists’

Campaigner’s family requests his case be dealt with independently

The family of rights activist Samar Abbas, who disappeared a fortnight ago from Islamabad, has requested that his case not be linked to the other campaigners who went missing earlier this month.

Abbas’s family – his ailing father Advocate Alamdar Hussain, brother Akhtar Hussain and wife Najmus Sehar – held a news conference at the Karachi Press Club on Saturday in connection with his disappearance.

“I have come before you all to plead my case regarding my son Samar, who always tried to benefit this country by participating in various social campaigns,” said the father. “Be it a cleanliness drive or a protest for policemen killed in the line of duty, my son made sure that he not only raised his voice but helped the families of victims struck by a tragedy.”

Abbas, who heads the Civil Progressive Alliance Pakistan, had arrived in the federal capital on January 3, but since January 8 his family has been unable to contact him and is unaware about his whereabouts to date.

Abbas’s father told the media that his son was a devout Muslim and requested that his case be dealt with independently. “Samar has no connection with the other activists who also went missing this month.”

The only similarity, he added, was that he had also been missing for around two weeks.

“But otherwise he has no link with those people and neither are we here to plead their case with his. We want the government to take notice of Samar’s case and consider it in a different light and provide us with the necessary information.”

Holding their one-month-old daughter, Abbas’s wife demanded that the authorities safely recover him because she could not mollify their other children – nine-year-old Bahjat and four-year-old Zainab – who were also present at the event.

bbas’s brother said his sibling should be brought to court if he was involved in suspicious activities. “If the state thinks my brother has done something wrong, then there are institutions that could hold him accountable.

“What kind of lawlessness prevails here that a man is taken away before charges are levelled against him? We shall continue to record our protest and raise our plea to recover my brother because picking up people in this day and age is unacceptable!”

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had assured the families of the missing persons that he was looking into the matter and that all propaganda was baseless, but the brother told The News that the security tsar had been saying these things for the past fortnight.

“His words are empty and have failed to reassure us because that’s what was told to us earlier and the authorities have made no headway in Samar’s case.”

The tearful father pointed out that the parents or families of those killed could be consoled.

“But those who do not even know where their children are can’t be consoled in any way. I request everyone to look into our son’s case and bring him back safely.”