ISLAMABAD—As
Islamabad Police continued to dilly dally on registering an FIR for missing
journalist Anis-ur-Rehman, his close friend spoke to JournalismPakistan.com on
Wednesday and narrated the sequence of events.

Sajid Shah said that
he, along with Rehman, an editor of the magazine Nada-e-Millat, left Lahore for
Islamabad on the morning of June 10.

The Saudi Embassy
had asked the journalist to collect his payment for the translations he used to
do for them while being based in Lahore.

On arriving in
Islamabad, Rehman drove alone to the embassy using his friend’s car and entered
the Diplomatic Enclave through Shams Gate.

However, he went
missing later that evening, and there’s been no trace of the car he had driven
to the embassy.

Shah said that he
called Rehman at 5:00 pm on June 10 and was told he was busy with friends and
would contact him later when free. His wife got a similar response when she
called him.

Shah said that he, along
with his sister-in-law, left for the Diplomatic Enclave at 11:30 pm the same
day Rehman went missing. However, the police stopped them near Serena Hotel and
did not allow them to proceed further.

Rehman called his
wife in Lahore on June 11 from his cell phone and told her not to contact the
police or tell the media; otherwise, he might get into trouble. He told her he
would return home on June 15.

Also, on June 11,
Shah went to the Secretariat Police Station, Islamabad, and complained about
his missing journalist friend.

He said that when he
went to the Secretariat Police to have an FIR registered, he was asked to go to
Ramna Police Station, who told him to contact Kohsar Police.

Rehman’s father had
launched an Urdu, English and Arabic language magazine named Arab Gazette in
1973. In 2006, he started leading the magazine after his father died.

The Saudi Embassy
reportedly subscribed to his magazine.

Newspaper: Journalism Pakistan