KARACHI The assertion by Rawalpindi police to have arrested nine men making preparations for suicide bombings came under doubt on Saturday after a number of people claiming to be relatives of three of the suspects said that their loved ones were `kidnapped` more than three months ago from different parts of Karachi.

The Sindh high court was already hearing petitions against their abductions, relatives said.

The families of Zeeshan Jaleel, Mohammad Sarfraz and Osama Waheed said they were surprised to read reports the Punjab police had arrested them after a raid on a house in Rawalpindi`s Dhoke Lakhan.

Records at the police stations concerned and petitions filed by the families before the Sindh High Court for recovery of the three `missing persons` suggested that all the three disappeared September and October.

`My son was picked up by armed persons in a white car near the Quaid`s mausoleum on Oct 18,` said Professor Muhammad Jalil, father of 27-year-old Zeeshan Jalil. `After making every effort to trace him, the very next day we lodged an FIR... with Brigade police station.`

Mr Jalil, who served as professor at the NED University of Engineering and Technology, said his son was a `family man` with three children. He ran a medical store in his residential area of Gulistan-i-Jauhar, he added.

`Since the city police failed to recover my son, I was forced to move the high court, which is due to resume the hearing on our petition on Feb 3 and we would definitely take up this matter. My son is not involved in any kind of activity alleged by the Rawalpindi police,` Mr Jalil said.

The relatives of Sarfaraz Ahmad, 36, said they were dumbfounded by the police statement. The Rawalpindi police claimed that they had recovered 100kg of explosives, detonators and other material during the raid and the arrested suspects had indirect links with the militant group of Baitullah Mehsud.

Sarfaraz Ahmed went missing on Oct 17 from Gulshan-i-Hadeed area when he was on way to Makli following a call from the police.

`On Oct 16 my brother was coming back home in Malir from Makli when his vehicle was intercepted, apparently by dacoits, but he managed to escape,` said Farhan Ahmed, younger brother. `But he went to Makli police station and lodged a complaint of this episode and the very next day when he was home, he received a call from Makli police station to visit them as the dacoits had been arrested.`

When Sarfaraz, along with his friend Muhammad Arif, was going to Makli, armed persons in a double cabin van intercepted their car near Gulshan-i-Hadeed area and took them away, Farhan said.

`After receiving no report from anywhere we later in the night contacted our area police (Al Falah station), searched every hospital and even went to Makli but did not find any clue. We finally came to know about the fact when our brother`s friend (Muhammad Arif) was released after two days by the kidnappers, who narrated the whole event. Then we moved the high court for his recovery,` Mr. Farhan said.

Ajmal Waheed, elder brother of 35-year-old Osama Waheed, had almost the same story to share, saying that his brother had gone to see off their father at Cantt Railway station on Sept 14, but he did not return home.

`First I went to Cantt police station. They refused to entertain my request and referred me to Artillery Maidan police station. Then I contacted the DIG South, but finding no response, I moved the High Court, which issued notices to the police officials and prosecutors.`

Father of two, Osama Waheed is a software programmer and younger brother of Dr. Akmal Waheed and Dr. Arshad Waheed, who were tried for the 2004 attack on the convoy of the Karachi corps commander, but were acquitted by the high court.

However, the family claimed that Osama had neither faced any threat nor received warning from law enforcement agencies even when his brothers were in police custody.