MUZAFFARABAD: A teacher in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) education department has appealed to the chief of the army staff to direct the intelligence agencies to help locate his teenage son who went missing about six weeks ago.

Raja Naseer Khan, who serves in the Government High School for Boys in Kumi Kot, a suburban village of Muzaffarabad, said he had exhausted all means to get a clue to his 15-year-old son Hassan Naseer.

Hassan, a student of 9th grade in Government Pilot High School Number 1 at Muzaffarabad, had appeared in his mathematics paper under the AJK Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, in his educational institution on April 10.

But he did not return home after the paper and nobody had any idea where he had gone.

“He was the most brilliant student at the school, whose only priority was his studies. Unlike other children of his age, he would not go around with friends and that’s why we are completely in the dark about his mysterious disappearance,” said a visibly downhearted Mr Khan while talking to Dawn on Thursday.

In reply to a question, the father said he did not have enmity with anyone, “though some might be jealous of him or his son”. He doubted that the kidnappers could be from some banned outfits or ordinary criminals.

Mr Khan said the disappearance of his son had devastated the whole family “That’s why I call upon Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa to direct the agencies under his command to come to our rescue,” he said. When contacted by Dawn, City Police Station House Officer (SHO) Rashid Habib Masoodi, dismissed Mr Khan’s apprehensions about the performance of police in his case as “unfounded”.

He pointed out that initially Mr Khan had lodged an application about the disappearance of his child, but it was the police who suggested to him to register a case regarding his abduction by unknown people.

“Ever since registration of the FIR, we have grilled more than 230 persons, including students, teachers and other staff of the school where the missing boy studied as well as shopkeepers and labourers of that neighbourhood ” he said.

“Even though they (aggrieved family) did not provide any concrete reason (for abduction), yet whoever they expressed the slightest suspicion about was investigated, but to no avail,” he added. SHO Masoodi said that the police had also checked some mobile phone numbers with the help of intelligence agencies, but that too did not offer any clue.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2017