PESHAWAR: The festival of Eid brought more gloom and despair for the families of hundreds of “missing persons” belonging to different parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas as their miseries are far from over and there is no hope of any development in their cases. Several of the relatives of these “missing persons” told Dawn that such festivals were a source of more sorrow for them as in the absence of their missing relatives they had nothing to celebrate.

“How can we celebrate Eid and cheer up when my old mother continues to weep and constantly ask about my missing brother who was allegedly taken away by the intelligence agencies around two years ago,” said Bakht Said, whose brother Jawed Khan was allegedly taken into custody while returning from Karachi.

Mr Said, belonging to Buner district, said that Jawed was around 17 and an eighth grade student in Karachi. He said that he was coming back to his village in a bus when he was taken into custody by the local police in Kohat.

He said that later they came to know that he was in Hangu prison and charged under the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) by the tribal administration of the adjoining Orakzai Agency. However, he said that he mysteriously disappeared from the prison as the authorities claimed that he was set free on bail whereas they had learnt that he was taken away by the agencies.

“Both my parents are alive and they have been missing Jawed. He said that the entire family remained in gloom on Eid day as we are concerned about the wellbeing of Jawed,” adds Bakht Said.

He said that the petition filed by him against the disappearance had been pending before the Peshawar High Court and would be heard this month (August).

Wasif Khan, father of another missing person Bilal Ahmad, said: “You won’t believe me that we have spent the entire Eid day weeping and consoling each other. I could no longer bear the absence of my son and am getting weaker and weaker with each passing day.”

Mr Khan, who belongs to Mohmand Agency, said that they had been residing in Islamabad and over three years ago his son, around 20, was taken away by the law enforcement agencies from Rawalpindi. He said that another of his son, Mahmood Khan, was also taken into custody, but he was set free after nine months.

He questioned that if Bilal was in custody of the intelligence agencies then why they had not been admitting this fact before the high court, where his petition had been pending for last three years.

Khan Said, a resident of Hangu, said that he could no longer pacify his three minor grandchildren whose father had been missing for the last five years.

He said that during all these years the festivals like Eid brought more miseries for the entire family. “My wife now constantly remains ill and has been suffering from mental ailment. My daughter-in-law has been inquiring when her husband will return.” Khan Said added that his son, Noor Said, was a rickshaw driver and was allegedly picked up by intelligence agencies from Haji Camp area on June 20, 2009.

He said that another person arrested along with his son and later freed told them about detention of his son. He said that an FIR was registered on the orders of the Peshawar High Court at Paharipura police station, but no noteworthy investigation was conducted by the police.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2014