QUETTA: The National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) heard here on Tuesday missing persons’ cases referred to it by the Senate.

A complainant, Noor Mohammad, told the commission that five members of his family — Zubeda Bibi, Shazia Bibi, Rehmatullah Khan, Ghulam Rasool and Ghulam Nabi — had been kidnapped from Hawks Bay Road in Karachi on April 24, 2008. Since then their whereabouts have not been known. He said that he had tried to lodge an FIR but police refused to do so.

The interior ministry sought time to collect information from different agencies and the commission directed the ministry to submit reports on the case and targeted killing of Hazara community women in Quetta by May 8. The cases will be heard on May 15.

During the hearing of the case of two missing children from Khuzdar, a representative of the interior ministry told NCHR head retired Justice Nawazish Ali Chohan that the family of the children had lodged an FIR at a police station but later failed to approach police for investigation.

Women relatives of the children said they could not reach the police station on time because they were informed about the investigation only a few hours before the proceedings.

The commission constituted a joint investigation team, headed by the Khuzdar deputy commissioner, to investigate the case. It asked the deputy commissioner to facilitate the women to pursue the case.

The NCHR head said they had been sent to Quetta by the Senate to particularly look into the case filed by the women and they would not tolerate any interference in the case.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2017