Baloch social worker Abdul Wahid returned to his home in Karachi's Lyari area on Monday after allegedly being taken into custody in July this year, family sources told Dawn.

Missing since July 26, social activist and writer Abdul Wahid Baloch was taken away by two men in plain clothes while travelling on a bus en route to Karachi with a friend.

Baloch’s eldest daughter, 20-year-old Hani, had told Dawn at the time of his 'kidnapping' that her father and his friend Sabir Ali Sabir, and his two children, were returning from an event in Digri, a town in Mirpurkhas district of Sindh, on the afternoon of July 26.

Quoting her father's friend, she had said two men in civilian clothes, “one in black and the other in white, came towards the van as it stopped at the Superhighway toll plaza and asked my father’s friend to show his identity card.”

The family, along with a few friends, then approached the Gadap Town police station, located right next to the toll plaza. “The police refused to register an FIR and asked us to wait for three days, as he might return," Hani had said. "We then approached the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), where we submitted an application along with his details.”

Abdul Wahid is a book lover and was a telephone operator at Karachi's Civil Hospital. He helped Baloch authors publish their works and activists print posters.

A close friend of his told Dawn earlier that Abdul Wahid was known for participating in events, protest rallies and hunger strikes held by Baloch activists and fishermen for the missing persons. "He was referred to as comrade and used to be a constant fixture at the Karachi Press Club," he said.