https://arab.news/wuzye
- Ahmed Shah Farhad went “missing” from Islamabad residence on May 14 following social media posts critical of army
- His family has accused ISI spy agency of being behind his kidnapping, army says it does not suppress critical voices
ISLAMABAD: A Kashmiri poet and journalist who was reported “missing” by his wife earlier this month is in the custody of police in the Azad Kashmir region, Attorney-General Mansoor Usman Awan told the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday.
Ahmed Shah Farhad went missing from his Islamabad residence on May 14, prompting his wife to accuse Pakistan’s top spy agency, the military-backed Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), of abducting him and filing a petition with the IHC for her husband to be recovered.
The army has not commented on the development, but it has repeatedly said in the past it does not suppress critical voices. Before his abduction, Farhad had criticized Pakistan’s powerful military in social media posts regarding unprecedented protests held in Azad Kashmir earlier this month.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan, Additional Attorney General (AAG) Munawar Iqbal Duggal and Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar appeared before the court to present the state’s case.
“AGP Awan informed the court that Shah was in police custody and presented the police report to the court,” the English-language newspaper Dawn reported on comments that were widely reported in Pakistani media.
Farhad’s case has once more put a spotlight on enforced disappearances in Pakistan in which families say people picked up by security forces often disappear for years, and are sometimes found dead, with no official explanation. Pakistani security agencies deny involvement in such disappearances.
A complaint filed by the police at the Dhirkot Police Station in Azad Kashmir and seen by Arab News said Farhad was arrested by police on Wednesday morning as he tried to leave for his ancestral village in Kashmir from Islamabad.
The complaint said police stopped Farhad’s car at 07:00 a.m. near Kohala bridge in Azad Kashmir to ask for identification following which he misbehaved with police officers and abused them. Farhad was subsequently arrested for interfering in the government’s affairs under section 186 of the Pakistan Penal Code, the complaint said, a provision in law that deals with intentionally hampering, misleading, jeopardizing or defeating an investigation, inquiry or prosecution.
Rights organizations have frequently accused Pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies of illegally detaining and torturing dissenters without any explanation or following due process of law. The military and intelligence agencies deny involvement in such acts.