KARACHI – A veteran journalist and member of Karachi Press Club Nasarullah Khan was picked up by the personnel of law enforcement agencies in the wee hours of Saturday, said the family members.
Nasarullah, who works as a sub-editor at Urdu Daily, was allegedly taken into custody outside his residence in Garden area and since then his whereabouts are unknown.
The wife of missing journalist Ghulam Fatima submitted an application at Soldier Bazaar police station according to which the personnel – some of them were wearing plain clothes and others were in uniforms – took her husband into custody at the ground floor of their apartment located in Garden area of the city. “Then they took Nasarullah to our flat and kept searching in the residence, asking other family members to remain in other room,” the application reads.
She added that the personnel had asked if any other male member of the house also there and took her husband to his father’s residence located in the same apartment when they realised that there was no other man in the house.
She submitted in the application that the personnel also searched the entire house of her father in law and assured that Nasarullah would be released within one and a half hour when the family members asked the reason of his arrest.
“I request the police department to recover my husband at the earliest,” Fatima lamented.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and Karachi Union of Journalists has expressed their severe concern over the disappearance of journalist and Karachi Press Club member Nasrullah Khan after a raid at his residence from plainclothes personnel and demanded of the Sindh governor, chief minister Sindh, Karachi corps commander, DG Rangers and Sindh IGP tohalt such steps to harass the journalist community and silence the dissenting voices.
They warned of protest in case the missing journalist is not recovered. They made these demands in a hurriedly called meeting of the PFUJ at the Karachi Press Club that was chaired by PFUJ General Secretary Sohail Afzal Khan and attended by the KPC president, general secretary and members of journalist unions.
The meeting termed the arrests as an attack on independent media and linked it with a two day back raid from security personnel on the KPC that was unprecedented in the history of the KPC when the security personnel entered its premises.
“The arrest is aimed to halt country-wide protests against the intrusion in the Karachi Press Club,” said the joint statement and added that such actions were taken to harass the journalist community that wanted to raise its voice against the shameful act of the intrusion.
They demanded of the authorities to immediately release Nasrullah Khan and the state and its institutions should clear its policy as to why such steps were taken to impose censorship on the fourth pillar of the state.
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