RAWALPINDI, Dec 29: Family members of the missing people on Friday mounted a protest demonstration in front of the Lal Masjid, Islamabad, to demand release of their loved ones.
The rally was organised by the Islamic Centre for Research and Defence of Human Rights. Holding placards and photographs of their loved ones, the participants of the rally raised slogans against the alleged detention by intelligence of their relatives.
They demanded release of the missing before Eidul Azha so that they could celebrate the happy occasion in a befitting manner.
The MMA member of the National Assembly from Islamabad, Mian Aslam, and Maulana Ghazi Abdul Rashid, the imam of Lal Masjid, were among the participants. Speaking on the occasion, Mian Aslam condemned Thursday’s incident in which police badly beat up relatives of the missing people when they tried to march to the GHQ to meet Vice-Chief of the Army Staff Gen Ahsan Saleem Hayat and present a memorandum to him.
The MMA leader accused the government of having handed over the missing people to the United States and demanded immediate recovery of the disappeared. The government should provide protection to its people instead of handing them over to foreign countries, he said.
RELEASE: In a related development, at least 20 people -- mostly women and young children picked up by the Pindi police on Thursday and put in the lock-up -- were released late on Thursday.
Ms Amina Masood Janjua -- the mother of Mohammad bin Masood, 16, who was badly beaten up and stripped by police -- told Dawn by telephone on Friday that the detained family members were released at midnight. “My son is extremely terrified by Thursday’s incident,” the sobbing mother said.
