HYDERABAD: The brother-in-law of the Hyderabad mayor went missing on Tuesday evening after he left his construction company’s office near the Nazeer Hussain flyover in Latifabad.

Mayor Tayyab Hussain told Dawn on Wednesday that he didn’t know about any wrongdoing on the part of Dr Hassamuddin Farooq aka Dr Tauheed. He said his brother-in-law lived a purely professional life. “The manner in which he was kidnapped looks quite planned,” he said.

It was learnt that Dr Tauheed was picked up by some men riding a Vigo as he came out of his company’s office in Latifabad. He had left by his car, which was intercepted by the Vigo occupants paces away from his office. The suspects also took away his car. Since then his whereabouts remained unknown.

Dr Tauheed is a regular contractor and has been associated with the local formations of a state institution for a long time. He is the brother of Saeed alias Pappar — an activist of Altaf Hussain-led Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM) who was gunned down in the late ’80s. Mayor Hussain’s wife is his elder sister. He has good social and political contacts in and outside Hyderabad.

CIA DSP Aslam Langah visited the Latifabad Unit-7 overhead bridge area to collect details of the incident, including its CCTV footage. Dr Tauheed lives in Latifabad Unit-6.

There was an unconfirmed report that Dr Tauheed was suspected to have involvement in some London-related monetary transactions.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2018