Islamabad slum residents file missing persons report for MNA Asad Umar

Islamabad – Our Missing Persons Correspondent: The residents of the kachi abadis in Islamabad’s I-11 sector filed a missing persons report on Friday, after their elected representative Asad Umar was found missing since several days.

Umar, who also represents the citizens of NA-48, which includes the slums of I-11, was found missing during the run-up to the CDA operation that was meant to demolish the informal settlements.

Umar’s possible kidnappers, widely believed to be TV studios and an assortment of drawing rooms, have been communicating with the residents through Umar’s recorded messages but have not yet made any demands for ransom.

“In these messages, he keeps a calm composure and talks about irrelevant things,” said Saleema Dawar. “I keep thinking that he is trying to send some sort of hidden message in that nonsense, but it seems to be a really, really well-hidden message concealed deeply within that nonsense.”

Umar’s case isn’t helped by the fact that, as opposed to his constituents from said slums, he is also a possible target for the agencies, since he belongs to a number of red-flag demographics. “As a wealthy, educated, Punjabi Sunni male, whose father was a general in the army and who had a high-ranking executive career in a corporate behemoth, and who continues to have very good relations with the business sector, Asad Umar’s life is in real danger,” said Ilyas Haider of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

The kidnappers have attempted to send a signal that Umar is alive when, in a brief video, they showed a clip of his in what appeared to be the parliament, where he was briefly mouthing concerns about the residents of I-11.

“I wonder where he is, whether he is getting any food or water and what hole in the ground his kidnappers have kept him in; I’m worried sick about him,” said Khadim Hussain, as he evacuated his two children out of the debris of his demolished home.