LAHORE: Social activist Raza Mahmood Khan, who had been missing for thepast seven months, returned home on Friday.
Raza, a convener of Aghaz-i-Dosti — a friendship initiative between theyouth of India and Pakistan — was reportedly picked up by men in plainclothes from his Model Colony residence in Gulberg on December 2, 2017.
Activists belonging to various rights groups, along with friends andfamily, had since been agitating for Raza’s release. They had condemned the‘enforced disappearance’ of activists and attempts to silence and harassthose speaking up for peace and human rights.
Model Town SP Investigation Mohammad Imran said that Punjab police hadrecovered Raza 10 days ago. He, however, did not disclose further detailsabout where Raza was found.
Raza is in good health but he is not willing to give a statement about hisdisappearance due to “security concerns”.
Speaking to *Pakistan Today *after the incident had happened, Diep Saeedaof the Institute for Peace and Secular Studies (IPSS) said that Raza hadnot been involved in any anti-state activity; he was a peace activist whowas trying to bridge the gap between Pakistan and India in his own capacity.
“He was apolitical,” she stressed.
Responding to a question about the discussion on Faizabad fiasco in whichRaza participated, she had said that everyone was frustrated about thedebacle, adding, “We have a right to express ourselves.”
“No state institution has a right to pick up a person on the basis ofcriticism,” she had also said then.
Women’s rights activist Nighat Saeed Khan had also commented on theincident and had said that picking up people for any reason and notgranting right to defend themselves is illegal in democratic countries.
International rights organisation Amnesty International, in a statementissued following Raza’s disappearance, had demanded that the Pakistanigovernment ensure the recovery of the Lahore-based activist.
“The Pakistani authorities must take all measures as may be necessary toinvestigate Raza Khan’s fate immediately,” Amnesty’s Deputy South AsiaDirector Dinushika Dissanayake had said.
“Scarcely does a week go by without Amnesty International receiving reportsof people going missing in Pakistan,” Dissanayake had said. “Many of themmay have been subjected to enforced disappearances, which is a crime underinternational law.”