Missing persons are hiding voluntarily: Pakistan PM

Karachi News.Net
Thursday 4th January, 2007

Faced with growing protests over a large number of missing persons in the country, Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has now said that most are 'hiding voluntarily'.

Aziz 'fell short of calling the missing persons criminals under-(in) hiding', Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) news agency said.

The prime minister Wednesday also asked their relatives to follow proper protocol while demanding their return. Aziz said the interior ministry was investigating the matter and also asked for cooperation from the relatives of these people.

Last week, relatives of scores of missing persons, both civilian and military, were arrested in Islamabad after they staged demonstrations in front of the Army Headquarters and the office of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), the powerful spy network.

They suspect that their relatives have been in ISI custody or some other government agency and are being held without any court procedure.

Their basic demand has been that they be told the missing persons' whereabouts and be allowed access to them.

The missing, according to government sources, include criminals and those involved in sectarian violence going into hiding from the law or crossing over to Afghanistan through a long and porous border.

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