ISLAMABAD, June 5: Commander Abdul Aziz Mirza (retired) has alleged that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the US has picked up his son, Ahsan Aziz, from Mirpur.

Talking to reporters at a local hotel on Wednesday he said that his son, a Jamaat-i-Islami activist, was picked up on May 30, 2003, when he was coming out of a mosque in Mirpur.

He told reporters that his son, who is also an engineer, was neither in the custody of police nor with any Pakistani intelligence agencies.

Mr Mirza said that he had filed a petition before the AJK High Court and also intended to submit a similar petition before the Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi Bench, against the detention of his son.

“I have talked to the deputy inspector police (DIG), Mirpur, but nobody knows about his whereabouts,” he claimed.

He said that the Pakistan government had become helpless in protecting its citizens from the highhandedness of the FBI.

Quoting witnesses, Mr Mirza said that his son was taken away in a white van immediately after leaving mosque. “We heard nothing about him since then,” he added.

He, however, conceded that his son had travelled to Afghanistan twice to distribute some relief goods.