Missing peace activist returns home

lahore — A peace activist who disappeared last year after criticising Pakistan’s military has returned to his home in the eastern province of Punjab, his friends said on Friday.

Liberals have long criticised what they see as the military’s use of militant factions to further political and security objectives. The army denies sponsoring such factions but regards security policy as its responsibility.

Raza Mehmood Khan, 40, a member of the Aghaz-i-Dosti (Start of Friendship) group that works to build peace with archrival India, had not been heard from since December 2.

His family had filed a writ of habeas corpus in a court in the eastern city of Lahore in the belief that he had been unlawfully detained by unknown authorities.

But on Friday, one of his friends, Ali Aftab Saeed, said Khan had returned.

“Raza is back,” Saeed said. “That’s the only thing I know.”

Another friend, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Khan had returned to the city of Kasur in Punjab on Wednesday.

The police declined to comment. On the day of his disappearance, Khan had spoken at a forum on militancy and posted comments on Facebook critical of the military and its suspected link to some religious hardliners.

Four activists critical of the army and its attitude towards militant groups went missing last year but reappeared after about a month.

Two later said Pakistani military intelligence agents abducted and tortured them.

The military denied the accusations.

International rights organisation Amnesty International, in a statement issued following Raza’s disappearance, had demanded that the

Pakistani government ensure the recovery of the Lahore-based activist.

“The Pakistani authorities must take all measures as may be necessary to investigate Raza Khan’s fate immediately,” Amnesty’s Deputy South Asia Director Dinushika Dissanayake had said. —