KARACHI: Another student of the University of Karachi hailing from Balochistan went ‘missing’ with his younger teenage brother after the two were “allegedly picked up by men in plain clothes and in police uniform” in a pre-dawn raid on their house off University Road on Thursday, family and a human rights body claimed.

They said that 22-year-old Mumtaz Sajidi, a final-year student of the KU international relations department, and his 18-year-old intermediate student brother, Kamran Sajidi, were whisked away from their home in Madhu Goth off University Road.

The family tried to put up resistance and know the identity of the men but they failed, leaving them in the belief that the incident was “a case of kidnapping”.

The family denied the boys’ associations with any political, ethnic or religious organisation, but admitted that Mumtaz was quite active with different civil society groups for the recovery of Sagheer Ahmed Baloch, a second-year political science student of the university.

Sagheer has been missing since Nov 20 after being ‘kidnapped’ on the campus, and his family has lodged an FIR with the Mobina Town police station over his ‘kidnapping’.

Mumtaz Sajidi’s elder brother Naeem Sajidi said: “We originally hail from Khuzdar, but our family has no history of any political association.

“We saw several people, including policemen and some in plain clothes who took away my two brothers on Thursday morning. We kept asking them about their identity and motive for it, but in vain. We don’t know who they are, so we have no other option but to take it as a kidnapping. My brothers are simple students and Mumtaz only participated in peaceful demonstrations of civil society for the recovery of Sagheer Ahmed Baloch.”

Like Sagheer’s family, Naeem also approached the police for the registration of a ‘kidnapping’ FIR of his two brothers, but did not get a positive response from the police.

At the Gulistan-i-Jauhar police station, he was asked to wait for at least 24 hours.

“They just registered a complaint in the daily diary and refused to register any FIR. I told them that I was an eyewitness to the incident, but they did not pay any heed to it. Right now we are waiting for any good news regarding our brothers before moving to court for the registration of an FIR,” he added.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) expressed serious concerns over the kidnapping incidents and demanded the production of the young students in court.

“So far we know that Mumtaz was only participating in demonstrations. You cannot spot people only for raising voice for any action they believe is not right. It’s an alarming trend and we demand the immediate recovery of these youngsters. The fresh incidents would not help anyone’s cause, but it would worsen the already fragile situation,” said Asad Iqbal Butt of the HRCP.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2018