KARACHI: A senior professor of the University of Karachi, who had gone missing and was believed to have been taken away by law enforcement agencies soon after he left the KU on Friday, has returned home, his colleagues said.

Prof Dr Riaz Ahmed, head of the Applied Chemistry Department at the KU, had left the varsity on Friday night when he was “taken away” near Sheikh Zaid Centre, according to his colleagues.

Dr Jamil Hasan Kazmi, president of the Karachi University Teachers Society (Kuts), on Sunday told Dawn that the captors of Dr Ahmed dropped him near his home late Saturday night.

Dr Jamil said he spoke to Dr Ahmed after his return. The KU professor told him that he was not harmed while in captivity, neither was he questioned by his captors. “Dr Ahmed said he knew nothing about the motives of his captors,” he said.

“All I can say is that I have returned home safely,” said Dr Ahmed when contacted by Dawn.

On his Facebook profile, Dr Ahmed observed: “I am free and back home and the struggle continues in these difficult and oppressive times only through your support and an untiring quest for the rights of all oppressed and marginalised by the war and loot and plunder around us.”

Colleagues of Dr Riaz told Dawn that when last time he was arrested he was booked on charges of carrying an ‘illegal weapon’ owing to which he had to suffer 26 appearances before court. During the last 10 years, the KU professor had been arrested eight times merely for exercising his right to free speech, said a friend of his.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2018