KARACHI – The family of missing Gwadar Development Authority (GDA) officer Arif Noor Baloch held a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday.
Abid Noor – the younger brother of Arif – along with his mother, sisters and other family members, addressed the press conference. Showing concern over his forced disappearance, the family accused the intelligence agencies of picking up the government officer on October 31, 2010 from the Garden area, whose whereabouts remain unknown despite the passage of four months. They claimed that Arif might have been killed by the agencies.
Speaking on the occasion, Abid said his elder brother suffered from a spine problem and had come to Karachi for medical treatment but was abducted by secret agencies from his house within the Garden police jurisdictions. Abid, who witnessed the incident, said that plain-clothed armed men escorted by police had encircled the entire area and forcibly entered their flat No D-7, Jaffar Aziz Apartments, Garden East. They harassed the family members while misbehaving with the women and the elders and later arrested Arif without any warrants, taking him away to undisclosed location.
He said that Arif was a grade-16 employee of the GDA, which is a government-controlled institution and the only reason for his abduction was him being a patriotic nationalist. The family maintained that Arif had no political connections and had never been associated with any political party, adding that if there were any criminal charges against him, he should be brought before the court.
Arif’s family has appeared before the media for the second time. They made a fervent appeal to the president, the prime minister, the chief justice of Pakistan, the chief of army staff and other relevant authorities to help in the release of Arif. The family also requested the civil society and political activists to play their role in this regard.
