ISLAMABAD, Sept 28: There was a glimmer of hope in the small wet eyes of a poor old man soon after he learnt that his DNA map did not match that of any of the 102 men, women and children killed in the bloody Lal Masjid operation in July.

The news that his son was not among the dead buried in the recently opened H-11 graveyard brought a short-lived respite to 60-year-old, Muzamil Shah. But, this hope seemed too incongruous on a face painted with mixed expression of fear and complete disillusion.

“If my son, Mohammad Ali, is alive then where is he?” This is the question for which Muzamil is seeking an answer from all the law-enforcement agencies that took part in the controversial Lal Masjid operation. But, he is yet to get a reply.

His son mostly restricted himself to his study table and bedroom during the days of examinations. Only a call for prayer could put a temporary halt to his preparation for he believed that with the help of Almighty God he could achieve good grades.

He was an MA Economics student at the Asghar Mall College, Rawalpindi, living with his parents and siblings in Sector G-6/4.

“This time he wanted to make a difference after failing three papers in first year. He was determined to achieve good grades. He wanted to be a good economist in future and for this, he knew, he had to work hard,” Muzamil Shah narrates the ambitions of his lost son as tears roll down his cheeks.

On July 3, Mohammad Ali was requested by his frail father to go for grocery shopping in one of the government’s subsidised utility stores in the vicinity of the Lal Masjid. But, Mohammad Ali heard Aazan for Zuhr prayer and went inside Lal Masjid to offer prayers before doing anything worldly.

He was stuck inside the mosque after the security forces cordon off the Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa area that day and later clamped curfew there.

On July 6, he called his mother from his cell phone after finding an electric plug to recharge its exhausted battery. He was fear-stricken and was crying.

“Mother neither can I stay here nor can I run from here. Here I have no food to eat. Forces will kill me outside if I leave the mosque,” the father quoted his son with his grey beard studded with tears.

He narrated the last phone call of his son and the few sentences he uttered on that occasion before the call dropped.

“I will never forget the plight and agony he was undergoing at that time,” Muzamil Shah says.

Mohammad Ali was the blue-eyed son. He was the only brother of seven sisters. He never did groceries, but that day he had to as his father was suffering from sever muscular pain.

The information provided to his family by insiders reveals that Ali is still alive but in the custody of a secret agency which is busy in gleaning information from him. Allegedly, he was tortured to the level where he had to lose his mental equilibrium, his father says.

“I can help you, but still can’t Chacha (uncle),” Mr Muzamil recalled the exact words of an army officer whom he met through a private secretary of Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao.

The poor old man has knocked at the doors of the official residence of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, but he was never allowed to enter. He had a chance to see Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz personally with the kindness of a police officer.

He had narrated his ordeal to the secretary interior ministry, Kamal Shah and the ministry’s spokesman, Javed Iqbal Cheema, but to no avail.

Muzamil Shah hails from Amazai, Tehsil Ghazi, Haripur district. He was a security guard at Habib Bank (HBL) and was relieved two years back under the golden handshake scheme. He is living in a small rented house near Iqbal Hall, Sitara Market.

“Mohammad Ali was my sole hope of taking me out of poverty. I expected him to take my responsibilities and support his family, his sisters. I appeal to the government to hand over my son back to me,” he said.

The family is so poor that they even cannot afford a television in their home. They were not among those millions of people who watched the Lal Masjid operation live on their TV screens. All they could do is to listen to the scary sounds of bullets and feel the despicable smell of gunpowder.

They have appealed to the chief justice to take suo motu notice of the situation and make the law-enforcement agencies present Mohammad Ali in the court.

“I am willing to see my son being tried in a court than being held incommunicado,” says Muzamil.

His son had nothing but a single connection with the red mosque — the connection of a worshipper to a place of worship.s