Less than two months after a Karachi University student was ‘kidnapped’ from the campus, another student of the varsity and his younger brother have been ‘picked up’ from their residence, a friend and a rights group said on Thursday.
Mumtaz Sajidi Baloch and his brother Kamran Sajidi were reportedly picked by law-enforcement agencies (LEAs) personnel in plainclothes who were accompanied by a heavy contingent of police at around 4am on Thursday. They were picked up from their house in Maddu Goth, located just off of University Road, near the Metro Cash and Carry store, a family friend of the abducted men told Dawn.
Mumtaz is a final year student in the masters’ programme of KU’s Department of International Relations while Kamran has recently completed his intermediate. They belong to a middle-class family hailing from Balochistan’s Khuzdar district, the family friend said.
He said Mumtaz is “not affiliated with any particular political party”, but has been active in civil society protests. “Mumtaz’s family is appealing for his release,” he added.
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Vice Chairman (Sindh) Asad Iqbal Butt corroborated the family friend’s account, saying police and plainclothes personnel who arrived in “vehicles without number plates” picked up the two men.
He stressed that if the student has committed a crime, it should be made public. Butt said protesting against the ‘disappearance’ of Sagheer Ahmed Baloch is a democratic right of citizens.
Sagheer, a second-year student in the Political Science Department at KU, was having tea near the Visual Studies Department on November 20 when several persons showed up in a car and two motorbikes and whisked him away.
“If Baloch students are picked up in this manner, the situation will move towards anarchy,” said the HRCP official.
A first information report is yet to be registered of the two brothers’ alleged abduction.