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| October 23, 2002 | Wednesday | Sha’aban 16,1423 |
Spy agencies harassing family of journalist
ISLAMABAD, Oct 22: Intelligence sleuths on Tuesday tried to disrupt a press conference convened by Shahzia Mansoor, a relative of journalist Shaheen Sehbai for exposing the alleged victimization of the family by the government.
Intelligence operatives brought Khalid Mehmood, on whose complaint a case was registered against Shaheen Sehbai to the National Press Club Islamabad where Mrs Mansoor was to hold a press conference to protest against the arrest of her husband, Mansoor Ahmed.
Khalid Mehmood, who is a low-grade employee at General Headquarters, stood up as soon as Mrs Mansoor started narrating her tale of woes to the representatives of national and international media.
Khalid Mehmood started shouting when the management of the press club tried to intervene and asked him to leave the club. He had also brought some documents’ photo copies of which were made on paper normally used in the government offices.
A plain-clothed intelligence officer accompanied Khalid Mehmood to the press conference hall while few others waited in a jeep outside.
“The only sin of my husband is that he is brother-in-law of Shaheen Sehbai,” Shazia Mansoor told the press conference appealing to the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice of this highhandedness.
She said her husband, who had been implicated in the cases, got pre-arrest bail from the court which was cancelled on Oct 14. The court, she said, kept the bail application pending for two days and handed over Mansoor to police after two days.
She said her husband was in the custody of police for the last seven days where he was being mentally and physically tortured in presence of some intelligence operatives.
She said they had been asking her husband to give a statement against Shaheen Sehbai or pay Rs 1.6 million to the complainant.
“I would hold President Gen Pervez Musharraf responsible if anything happened to my husband,” she said.
Mrs Mansoor, who broke into tears while telling her story, said that before her husband one of her uncle was arrested and kept in the custody.
She said the family was being victimized only because of our relation with Shaheen Sehbai.
The family, she added, had nothing to do with the profession of Shaheen Sehbai.
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