PESHAWAR, Aug 30: Political and civil society activists held a demonstration at Sher Shah Suri Road here on Thursday to protest against disappearance of people from different areas and asked the government to recover all missing persons without any delay.

The protesters had gathered under the banner of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan to mark the International Day of the Disappeared.

Holding placards and banners, the participants called for immediate recovery of the missing persons and chanted slogans against the delay in their safe and early recovery.

Talking to media persons, the protesters expressed concern over the rising number of missing persons’ cases and the government’s indifference to recover them safely.

Referring to a report, the activists claimed that a number of people had been missing or kept in custody for a long period without any solid proof and legal procedure. They said that intelligence agencies were behind apprehension of such people.

They said that the state and relevant organisations had not been taking any action for safe recovery of the arrested people despite judgments of the superior judiciary about missing persons.

“The alarming aspect of all this is that people are still being kidnapped in the country in absence of any tangible steps by government,” they maintained.

The protesters demanded of the government to take practical steps for immediate recovery of missing persons and provision of speedy justice to the affected families. They also demanded of the law-enforcement agencies to refrain from violation of basic rights of people.