Originally hailing from Haripur, Atlas Khan came to Islamabad to seek a better future for himself and his family. Settled in Golra, Mr Khan operated a transport business, plying passenger vehicles on various routes in the city. However, that did not sit too well with an influential personality from his area, who has done everything possible to make Atlas Khan’s life miserable.

Nazar Khan, a local landlord who also owns and operates bus terminals and showrooms in the Golra area, runs passenger vehicles from Golra to Raja Bazaar.

“Our dispute was a meager one; he wanted his vehicles to get ahead in the transporters’ queue and I objected and asked them to wait their turn.”

After an initial kerfuffle, things seemed to settle down. But in September last year, Atlas’ son Nasir Khan, who drove one of the passenger vehicles, was abducted at gunpoint.

They accused Nasir and his friends of stealing one of Nazar Khan’s vehicles and took them to a haveli in Dhoke Mohri. According to Atlas, the young men were badly beaten and humiliated by their captors.

“I received a call from my son, who told me that he and his friends had been abducted by the landlord, so I went to Nazar Khan’s dera with my other son Wajid and begged him to release the boys,” he said.

Atlas says he told the landlord he could hand the boys over to the police if he suspected they stole his vehicle, but he simply replied, “We will get the vehicle back from them. We are the law and the custodians of this area.”

Nazir and three of his friends – Nawaz, Sajjad, and Shafqat – were later released in exchange for Rs125,000 in cash.

“But two of the boys – Waheed and Rajab – have yet to be returned. We have no idea where they are or if they are even alive.”

Desperate for justice, Atlas went to the police, who lodged a complaint. However, the accused are still at large and police were dilly-dallying because the suspects were powerful individuals.

Dawn contacted Golra police, who refused to comment. Investigation Officer SI Mohammad Idrees said that 22 people were nominated in the case, of whom six had been arrested so far. However, four of them have already been released on bail.

Dawn’s ‘Eye-Witness Account’ segment features accounts of individuals who have experienced adversity or have been affected by a miscarriage of justice. All accounts are verified as far as possible by Dawn’s editorial team. Readers are encouraged to send in accounts of similar incidents that may have befallen them, so that attention can be called to such problems and they can be addressed with due debate in the public eye. Readers can send their accounts to re.isb@dawn.com

Published in Dawn February 11th , 2015

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