LAHORE, Jan 12: The police have again expressed their ignorance about the whereabouts of a real estate agent who was reportedly picked up by plainclothesmen from his house in Cantonment on Friday.

Sheikh Khalil, 40, the father of four, was lifted by at least 12 gunmen.

“We have no idea about the raid,” Cantonment police SP Dr Usman Anwar told Dawn. “I have no information whether the man has been caught by some intelligence agency neither any complainant has approached me.”

However, the North Cantonment police said the family did visit them after the Friday raid. “They informed us verbally about the raid and left the police station,” a duty officer said, adding that he had advised the family to submit a written complaint but they didn’t.

Mrs Khalil who locked the house on Sunday and left for her parents in Mandi Bahauddin, said the gunmen stormed into their house and detained her in a room. They thrashed Khalil before dragging him away.

“I am unable to tell how the gunmen looked like as they did not give me time before they pushed me into the room and bolted it from outside.”

Amjad Ali, a neighbour, said it was like an intelligence agency operation. “Besides the intruder, there were some other plainclothesmen who had taken positions at the rooftop of a nearby school.”

Mrs Khalil and Muhammad Farooq, a cousin of the property dealer, denied that Khalil had affiliation with any religious group. “He does not have any religious leaning.”

They said the people who took away the property dealer neither told them about any motive behind their raid nor they informed them about charges against him. “They also did not tell us as to where they were taking him.”

Mrs Khalil, however, said her husband had friendship with Nadeem, a resident of Hyderabad, some years ago. Nadeem visited her husband five months ago and he, too, was taken away in a similar operation from outside her house, she said.

“Nadeem might have some connections with the MQM,” another family member said.

This reporter visited the house on Sunday and found it locked. Neighbours were scared and reluctant to talk about the raid. “We know nothing,” said most of them except for one who criticised the police saying how was it possible that they did not know about the raid.