Journalist ‘picked up’ from home

A journalist associated with an English newspaper was allegedly picked up by three plain-clothes men from his house in Gulzar-e-Hijri in the wee hours of Sunday.

The Nation staff reporter Abdullah Zafar was purportedly taken into custody from Lawyers Society, Scheme 33. His father told the Sachal police that three men had knocked on their main gate and asked for Zafar, adding that the men took Zafar away when he went out of the house to meet them.

Expressing concern over the incident, Sindh Home Minister Suhail Siyal directed DIG (East) Arif Haneef to submit a relevant report. Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ) President Hasan Mansoor, General Secretary Faheem Siddiqui and central executive committee members also expressed their concerns and demanded that the chief justice of Pakistan take suo motu action. They said if Zafar were to be interrogated, then the people who took him could have involved his employer or the KUJ.