ISLAMABAD, June 5: Hundreds of relatives of missing persons arrived in the federal capital on Wednesday and gathered in front of Parliament House – not in protest but to welcome the new Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Defense of Human Rights had organized the gathering which coincided with the oath taking of Mr Sharif as prime minister.

They congratulated the new prime minister and expected that he would help the aggrieved families in recovering their dear ones missing, some for more than a decade.

According to the Human Rights group, security agencies have kidnapped as many as 915 persons and many others have been confined in detention centers established in secret locations, such as near the Pak-Afghan border.

Their relatives have been struggling hard for their release but security agencies with little results.

But now that a new government has taken over control, relatives of the missing people hoped that their kidnapped family members would rejoin them.

“Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif is a kind-hearted man and he has feelings for the enforced disappearances. He has always raised voice in support of missing persons. Today, we hope the long-running drama of the so called terror war, the death and destruction, excesses and torture in the name of this war will come to an end.

The woes and mental torture of sisters, mothers, daughters, fathers, sons and brothers will be finished. We hope the new prime minister will take bold and practical steps for closing the underground torture cells established by the security agencies and all the missing persons will be recovered,” hoped the chairperson of Defense of Human Rights, Amina Masood Janjua. —Staff Reporter