Posts in category: DAILY MEDIA MONITORING

KARACHl: Two Karachi University students, who had gone missing from their homes on June 7, returned safely on Tuesday, their families and friends said.

A spokesman for the Voice of Balochistan Missing confirmed the return of Doda Illahi and Ghamshad Baloch, but did not give details.

Meanwhile, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Tuesday took notice of the use of `force` by the police against protesters, including women, who staged a sit-in near outside the Sindh Assembly against alleged disappearance of the two students.

Inquiry ordered A statement issued from the CM House said that Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) head Imran Yaqboob Minhas would head the inquiry committee with DIG-Traffic and SSP-West as members of his team.

The committee has been asked to complete the job and come up with the report and recommendations within seven days.

The city police, on Monday night, briefly detained over two-dozen people, including women, for lodging protest near the main gate of the assembly for recovery of the missing students. The held protesters were released late in the evening.

The relatives of the `missing` students and members of civil society organisations had set up a camp outside the Karachi Press Club for a couple of days and on Sunday night they marched on the provincial assembly and staged a sit-in demanding their release.

Journalist returns home safely Nafees Naeem an assignment editor at the AajNews television channel, who went missing from near his residence in Karachi on Monday after he had reportedly been picked up by men in plain clothes `returned home safely`, before dawn, his TV channel administration confirmed on Tuesday.

The channel said that it received the news of Mr Naeem`s return by Sam on Tuesday morning.

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TAXILA: A 10-year-old girl was raped and strangled to death in Attock.

The victim`s body was found from a graveyard in Faqeerabad area on Tuesday.

Her father told police that his daughter had left the house to go to a tuition centre on Monday but never reached there.

Police shifted the body to District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital for autopsy.

Medical examination revealed that the victim was raped more than once and then strangled to death. District Police Officer Umer Salamat along with Superintendent of Police (Investigation) Imran Razzaq visited the crime scene and supervised the investigation process.

He said forensic teams were called to collect evidence from the crime scene.

`An investigation team has been given the task to resolve the case within 48 hours,` he said.

According to sources, four suspects were taken into custody and are being interrogated by the investigation team. They added that there were marks of torture on the victim`s body.

Regional Police Officer (RPO) Imran Ahmer, along with Commissioner Noorul Ameen Mengal and Deputy Commissioner (Attock) Mohammad Zulqarnian visited the victim`s family. He also visited the crime scene and received a detailed briefing from the special investigation unit.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz took notice of the incident and has sought a report from police.

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LAHORE: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Tuesday condemned the recent cycle of abductions and manhandling of Baloch students from Karachi University.

In a press release, the commission said these students were allegedly picked up by law enforcement personnel and those who demand their release were roughed up and arrested.

In the case of two students who have just been released after pressure from their kin and civil society, it is noteworthy that theirwhereaboutsremained unknown until the time of their release. Such enforced disappearances are not only illegal but inhuman.

HRCP also expresses concern over the excessive use of force on June 13 by Sindh police against the relatives, activists and friends of the disappeared students. These peaceful protesters, which included women and children, had gathered outside the Sindh Assembly to demand the safe recovery of theirloved ones, but were met with violence and forcibly dispersed by the police.

`We reiterate our demand that enforced disappearances must be criminalised in line with International Convendon for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance,` HRCP says. Staff Reporter

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MUZAFFARGARH: A man was shot dead and two other persons were injured when two motorcyclists opened fire on them for being stopped from harassing girls in Khangarh area.

Reports said a family was strolling in the morning when two men on a motorcycle came there and harassed the girls.

Their father Abdul Shakoor, brother Ghafoor and Muhammad Hussain came there and caught a motorcyclist but the other man opened fire on them. Ghafoor died on the spot while Shakoor and Hussain were injured.

The injured were sent to the Nishtar Hospital, Multan.

The Khangarh police registered a case.

DPO Tariq Wilayat and his team reached the spot and ordered the IT and forensic teams to collect evidence.

Khangarh SHO Imran Hameed had already been suspended from service in a rape case.

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Additional commissioner had arrived in city overnight after transfer

LAHORE:
A grade 19 officer recently transferred to the city from the federal capital reportedly committed suicide by hanging himself in an apartment in Government Officers Residences (GOR-IV) in Faisal Town on Tuesday.

Imran Raza Abbassi had been transferred to Lahore as Additional Commissioner Revenue.

Police officials said he had been transferred two days back and had arrived in Lahore on Monday night along with his driver Rustam.

The driver told the police that Abbassi had gave him money to bring breakfast.

When he returned early morning and knocked the door multiple times, no one opened it.

He alerted the police on helpline 15. A police found the official hanging after breaking the door.

The police Crime Scene Unit, Punjab Forensic Science Agency and investigation teams collected evidence from the spot, said Model Town SP Waqar Kharal. They also informed the family of the deceased.

The family members contacted the police after a few hours and informed a magistrate in writing that they did not want a postmortem.

On the magistrate’s orders, the body was handed over to the family for burial.

Abbassi is survived by four children and widow.

“Forensic evidence collected from the scene has been sent to a lab,” SP Kharal said.The deceased had served as Bahwalpur and Faisalabad region anti-corruption director before being transferred to Islamabad. He also served as assistant commissioner revenue.

In October, 2019, an English language professor at Government MAO College died by apparent suicide amid a case in which he was accused of harassment.

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LAHORE: Police claimed to have arrested a suspect who travelled to Lahore with the intention of killing a girl and her family from Waah Cantonment over refusal of his marriage proposal. The arrested suspect has been identified as Awais. The suspect was arrested with a handgun and dagger police in the Missri Shah area. The suspect reportedly was annoyed for refusal of his marriage proposal and wanted to avenge by killing his would-be in-laws. OUR CORRESPONDENT

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Complainant tells police she befriended suspect through social media three years ago

THEKRI WALA:
Yet another case has come to light in which a young woman got trapped in a relationship with an alleged sexual predator who allegedly exploited her and did her a lot of harm.

The alleged victim, nevertheless, managed to contact the police and get a case registered against the accused.

According to the police, the complainant told Razaabad police that she had befriended Azan Ali, a resident of Street No. 16 of Mohalla Razaabad, through a social media three years ago.

The complainant said that the accused lied to her that he lived and worked in Saudi Arabia.

She said that the accused kept in touch with her through the social media for three years, and then one day he asked her to come to the town where he kept her in a rented house in Mohalla Razaabad near Pinnu Chowk for about a month and allegedly subjected her to sexual abuse.

The complainant said that she got pregnant, and the accused allegedly made her abort her pregnancy, brought her to Thikriwala to his partner who kept her there for a week and also abused her.

She alleged that whenever she asked for marriage, the accused beat her up ruthlessly.

Police registered a case against the accused under Section 376 of the PPC and started raids for his arrest.

Two women were allegedly sexually assaulted in Thikriwala on May 30.

After registering cases, police started conducting raids to arrest the accused.

According to the police report, one of the victims, who is a widow, stated in the case filed by her that she suffered from hepatitis and went to a dispensary in Bernala to get medicines when the accused, Zafar Ali and Ali Ahmed, called her under the pretext of giving her medicines and took the key of a room at the hospital from one of the hospital employees and made her sit in the room.

Shortly afterwards, the accused entered the room and took turns in sexually assaulting her.

In the other case the complainant told the police that accused Manzoor Ahmed found his sister alone at house and raped her at gunpoint.

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Search operation underway to ensure safe recovery of abducted miners

QUETTA:
At least four employees of a coalmine including two engineers were kidnapped by armed suspects on Tuesday in Quetta’s Hanna Urak area.

Police sources said employees of the Habibullah Coal Company were kidnapped on their way back from work.

“A search operation is underway to ensure safe recovery of the employees,” a senior administration official requesting anonymity told The Express Tribune.

He added that the kidnappers shifted the employees to an undisclosed location.

Militants in the past have also targeted security forces and abducted coalminers. Sorange and Marwar, the two areas of the provincial capital house rich coal reservoirs.

The sources also said that thousands of coalminers belonging to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Punjab are working in the province.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the kidnapping.

Earlier, in April last year, the remains of 16 unidentified persons had been recovered from a mass grave in Toor Chapper, a remote area of K-P’s Darra Adam Khel town.

The remains likely belonged to coalminers abducted by militants from Kalakhel area in 2011, Kohat DPO Suhail Khalid had told The Express Tribune, adding that local tribesmen were approached to identify the victims.

At least 34 coalminers had gone missing in K-P’s Shangla district in September 2011 after at least two dozen militants raided the base camp of the colliers who mostly hailed from Swat, Kohistan and Shangla districts of Malakand Division.

The security situation of Balochistan has been on the edge. On Sunday, June 12, the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Balochistan had foiled terrorists’ bid to target security forces and the courts of the provincial capital through improvised explosive device (IED) explosions.

In a statement, a CTD spokesperson had said they had received a tip-off about the aforesaid attempts. He had added that a motorcycle rider, when stopped, was found to be carrying an IED installed on his bike.

The spokesperson had further said that the explosive device was later dismantled by the bomb disposal squad.

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During the course of proceedings, the court directed the mother to give a yellow notice to the Interior ministry

ISLAMABAD:
The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed Dr Mehreen Baloch, mother of two missing daughters, to provide all details of the missing girls to the Ministry of Interior.

A three-member SC bench headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Ayesha A Malik heard the case regarding abduction of minor girls.

During the course of proceedings, the court directed the mother to give a yellow notice to the Interior ministry.

Addressing the mother, the chief justice said the report submitted to the court stated that she (Mehreen) was not providing pictures of the girls.

In response, Dr Mehreen said she had already submitted pictures which were five years old and she had also given all the details in the yellow notice.

The additional attorney general said the interior ministry had asked for photographs of the girls, a copy of the FIR and a yellow notice form.

The joint investigation team (JIT) had also submitted its fresh report, he added. Further on in the hearing, a DIG of Sindh Police said the provincial authorities were in coordination with the Balochistan police.

Based on information, two raids were carried out in Balochistan and one in Karachi, he added, saying that some of the recovered girls were shown to the petitioner but they were not her daughters.

Hearing of the case was adjourned for one month.

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KARACHI: Nafees Naeem, an assignment editor at Aaj News channel, went missing from near his home in Nazimabad on Monday afternoon and is believed to have been abducted by unknown persons traveling in a Vigo, according to police, the TV channel`s administration and media organisations.

West-Zone DIG Nasir Aftab told Dawn that as per the family`s statement, Nafees Naeemhad left his home in Nazimabad on Monday afternoon to purchase groceries when unknown persons took him away.

The senior officer said when they received information about the incident, police immediately contacted the family and theNazimabad SHO also visited the family home.

Police have also obtained CCTV footage from the spot and the DIG said video footage showed men in plainclothes traveling in a 4×4 Vigo apparently took away the media worker. Mr Aftab said he had personally spoken to the journalist`s wife who informed him that her husband had left home at around 3.50pm to purchase chicken from a nearby poultry shop before he was taken away.

The DIG said police have asked the family to lodge an FIR.

The officer said the journalist was not detained by the police, adding that no police station in West Zone was holding Mr Naeem.

Meanwhile, the Aaj News administration said in a state-ment that their assignment editor, Nafees Naeem, was taken away by plainclothes men outside his home in Nazimabad. The channel administration claimed that Mr Naeem was tal(en away in a police mobile whose whereabouts were unknown.

`Nafees Naeem has been associated with the channel for the last 10 years,` added the statement.

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah has also taken notice of the journalist`s disappearance. A statement issued on Monday night said the minister had spoken to Sindh Inspector General Ghulam Nabi Memon and directed him to ensure Mr Naeem`s swift recovery. He also assured the provincial police chief of complete cooperation from the federal authorities in this regard.The Aaj News administration in the statement condemned the `abduction` of their employee.

`Suppose, if Nafees Naeem had committed any illegal action, legal procedure should be adopted,` it said.

`No institution can be given right to take away any citizen without any charge, FIR or complaint,` said the Aaj administration. Such action by any institution was a matter of shame for the government, it added.

The Aaj administration urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah to take notice of the incident and ensure immediate recovery of Nafees Naeem.

Widespread condemnation In separate statements, the Pakistan Federal Union ofJournalists (PFUJ), Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE), Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ) and Karachi Press Club condemned the `kidnapping`ofthejournalist.

PFUJ president Shahzada Zulngar and secretary general Nasir Zaidi, while condemning the incident, demanded Mr Naeem`s immediate release and arrest of the culprits involved in his disappearance.

The PFUJ leadership urged the Sindh government and police to take urgent measures for the safe release of Mr Naeem and make all-out efforts for the safety and security of journalists and media workers, otherwise protest will be launched againstsuchdisappearances.

`Despite the regime change in Islamabad, adverse action against journalists continues,said KUJ president Shahid Iqbal and secretary Fahim Siddiqi.

The KUJ gave a 24-hour ultimatum to the Sindh government to recover the journalist, otherwise they would initiate protest.

It urged Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to take notice of theincident and gethimreleased immediately.

Moreover, in a statement the Association of Electronic Media Editors and News Directors also condemned the journalist`s disappearance.

Demanding Mr Naeem`s immediate recovery, the organisation said that the repeated kidnappings, killings, enforced disappearances and harassment of journalists in Pakistan were a matter of concern and shame.

Kalbe Ali in Islamabad also contributed to this report.

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