Missing Pak activist Salman returns home
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani poet and activist Salman Haider who went missing from the capital Islamabad earlier this month, just days after four other human rights campaigners disappeared, has been found, local media reported on Saturday.
The five missing liberal activists, some of whom have posted blogs criticising the political influence of the military and speaking up for the rights of religious minorities, had each gone missing separately since January 4.
Police sources told Geo News channel that Haider, who disappeared on January 6, was found late on Friday night.
“Police sources have confirmed that he has been returned and also that his physical condition is okay,” Geo News reported on Saturday, but giving no further details on how Haider was found. “Police say he was returned to Islamabad last night.” Haider’s family could not be immediately reached for confirmation. There was no word on the whereabouts of the four other missing activists.
It is not known how the five activists went missing, but some rights groups and newspapers have asked whether state or military agencies were in any way involved.
The Interior Ministry has repeatedly said it is doing all it can to recover the missing men.
Shortly after the activists disappearances, blasphemy allegations against them appeared on social media and in a complaint to police.
Friends, family and supporters of all five men deny they have blasphemed, and have denounced the campaign to press that charge, which could endanger their lives were they to reappear.
Di v i s i o n s h a v e emerged among advisers to President Donald Trump over whether to rescind a signature policy of his predecessor, President Barack Obama, that shields young immigrants from deportation, according to congressional sources and Republicans close to the White House.
Even though Trump campaigned on a promise to roll back Obama’s executive orders on immigration, the Republican has so far left intact an order safeguarding 750,000 people who were brought to the United States illegally as children, known as the “dreamers.”
The issue has become a flashpoint for White House advisers divided between a more moderate faction such as chief of staff Reince Priebus and immigration hardliners Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon, said a former congressional aide who has been involved with immigration issues in Washington.
Priebus has said publicly that Trump will work with Congress to get a “long-term solution” on the issue.