ISLAMABAD: Zaheer Abbas Naqvi, 29, left home on Sunday afternoon.

The secretary general of Majlis-i-Wahdatul Muslimeen Islamabad chapter, Naqvi, who works in the construction sector, was going to an under-construction house in Soan Garden.

However, he never reached the site and nor did he return home.

His wife, who works as a doctor in a private hospital in Islamabad, told Dawn that at three she received a call from a worker that her husband had called him to the site.

He informed her that Naqvi didn’t reach the site.

Pindi RPO denies activists are with them

“I initially sent an SMS to my husband which he answered but when I called him a little while later he didn’t answer. Later the phone was switched off,” she said.

“We have not gotten a ransom call,” she added.

She explained that her husband was from Bhakkar, though he had been living in Islamabad for the last 15 years.

Nasir Abbas, a relative of Mr Naqvi, said: “It is strange that the kidnappers did not call the family.”

A neighbour, Baqir Mehdi, told Dawn that Naqvi was a member of the local peace committee and dealt with the security guards who looked after the street.

“Last year, after the Raja Bazaar incident in which 13 people died, he got threats which he told the Margalla Police Station about,” he said.

Although I-10, where Naqvi lived, is located within the limits of Sabzi Mandi Police Station, the duty officer there claimed that no one had filed a complaint with the police station.

Four MWM activists missing

Secretary General MWM Rawalpindi Saeedul Hasan Naqvi told Dawn that five men associated with MWM were kidnapped within 24 hours.

“Three were kidnapped on Saturday and the other two on Sunday morning.” The others were, however, not leaders.

In Rawalpindi, Aliza Rizwan is waiting for her father to give her medicine. But her father has not come home for two days.

The five-year-old child of Rizwan Shah is suffering from Tuberculosis. Her father brought her to Islamabad from Gilgit for the treatment, along with the rest of the family – his wife and two sons.

The 28-year-old Rizwan Shah is the driver of Majlis-i-Wahdatul Muslimeen Secretary General Allama Raja Nasir Abbas.

On Saturday, “Someone came to the door and asked Shah to come outside. When he didn’t return after two or three hours, my sister tried to call on his mobile phone but it was switched off. The next day she informed Nasir Abbas Sahib and us,” Nayaar Abbas, Shah’s brother-in-law told Dawn.

Nayyar Abbas was in Gilgit and came to Islamabad.

Nayyar Abbas claims that the Punjab Police were holding Shah.

“A few months ago, some agency officials harassed him as he was coming home from work. The police refused to register the complaint,” he said.

Oddly enough the same day, another man who also worked as a driver for the MWM Secretary General Allama Raja Nasir Abbas, is said to have disappeared.

Asim Shah called his wife at five in the evening to tell her he was on his way home.

“But when he didn’t get home, my sister-in-law tried his cell phone which was also switched off. We called his work place to be told that he had gone home,” Qasid Shah, a brother of Asim Shah, told Dawn.

Secretary General MWM Rawalpindi, Saeedul Hasan Naqvi, who has been dealing with the police over the disappearances, said Zaheer Naqvi’s secretary Vilayat Ali also went missing on Sunday morning.

“We searched all the hospitals and roads in fear of accident but in vain. We informed Nasir Abbas who contacted the police,” he said.

When contacted, Majlis-i-Wahdatul Muslimeen Secretary General Allama Raja Nasir Abbas confirmed that two of his drivers and a gunman went missing on Saturday.

He said that his gunman Nisar Abbas was from Sindh.

He added that the Punjab police and the agencies had no information about the missing men. He too claimed that the men had been picked up because of their association with MWM.

“The PML-N Punjab government is not happy with MWM’s decision to support Dr Tahirul Qadri. We condemned the brutality of the Punjab police and the government in the Model Town incident,” he said.

“As per our information, MWM Islamabad Secretary General Zaheer Naqvi, the two drivers and a gunman are in the custody of the Punjab police. They should be released as soon as possible,” he said.

Regional Police Officer (RPO) Akhter Umer Hayat Lalika, however, told Dawn that the local police did not pick up the workers and activists of Majlis-i-Wahdatul Muslimeen.

“We have neither detained the workers nor have the local police received any complaint from the heirs of the missing persons,” he said and added that they might have been picked up by some other law enforcement agencies.

When Punjab Law Minister Rana Mashood Ahmad Khan was contacted, his staff members said the minister was busy in arranging a cricket match in Multan to raise funds for the internally displaced persons (IDPs).

The ruling PML-N MNA, Malik Abrar, told Dawn that the government did not believe in political revenge and the MWM’s allegations were baseless.

He, however, claimed that in the backdrop of the military operation in North Waziristan, intelligence agencies might have picked up some ‘suspicious’ people after tracking their telephone calls and other contacts.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd , 2014