ISLAMABAD: The joint investigation team (JIT) constituted to probe the disappearance of an IT engineer submitted its interim report to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday.

Engineer Sajid Mehmood was picked in March 2016 from his residence in F-10, Islamabad, allegedly by armed men wearing police uniforms.

The interim report, submitted to the court by the inspector general of the Islamabad police IGP, stated that written requests were sent to all hospitals, Edhi centres, the secretary health, in-charge National Press Club, IGPs Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, KP, AJK police, Pakistan railways, Fata secretary and prisons with the request for any information about the missing man.

A written request was also sent to the Ministry of Defence to ascertain the whereabouts of the alleged abductors from the intelligence agencies.

It said the matter was also taken up with the authorities concerned of all hospitals and other departments.

The report said the director general FIA was requested to check if the missing man was involved or arrested in any criminal case. But they also have no clue about it.

The JIT also looked at the missing person’s call data record to ascertain who he was in contact with before his disappearance.

But neither the phone call nor the police records showed any evidence which might suggest he had any connection with terrorists or criminals.

The report, however, said a written request to the State Bank for obtaining the data of bank accounts of Mr Mehmood was still awaiting a reply.

Mahera Sajid, the spouse of the missing engineer, in her petition cited intelligence agencies as the respondents

The JIT report admitted that an FIR of the case was registered on July 25 after a delay of four months and the JIT was constituted on the directions of the Missing Persons Commission. The JIT examined eight witnesses, including neighbours and family members.

The petitioner argued that had the investigation been started on time, Mr Mehmood’s abductors would have been traced through the Safe City cameras, IMEI numbers of his laptops and call data of his neighbourhood from the time of his abduction. However, because of the over four month delay in the registration of the FIR, all the potential evidence was lost.

Following the proceedings on Friday, the court put off the matter till a fortnight.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2016