Aaghaz-e-dosti, the organisation disappeared peace activist Raza Khan was working with, have issued their second official statement on the incident, expressing their worry over the continued absence of Raza.
“We thought that he will return soon, but since he hasn’t yet, we wanted to highlight the issue again as a reminder to keep the struggle going” the organisation told Pakistan Today.
The convener of Aaghaz-e-dosti, Raza Khan had gone missing on December 2 and has not been heard from since. Since then, a number of protests, both on social media and out in the streets, have taken place to demand that Raza be recovered from wherever he is.
Speaking about what they were doing as an organisation, the group explained to Pakistan Today that Aaghaz-e-Dosti is not an NGO, and would not be pursuing any legal action or organising any protests.
“We are a joint initiative/project of two organisations – Mission Bhartiyam (India) and Hum Sab Aik Hain (Pakistan). We all were working together in terms of sharing ideas and co-ordinating to implement them. Raza’s disappearance is a personal tragedy for us, more than how it affects us as a movement for peace” they explained.
Back on Friday, the Lahore High Court had asked the intelligence agencies to locate Raza Khan as the Punjab Police had said they were unsuccessful in their attempts to locate the activist.
“Our recent statement has nothing to do with the court order, we are just worried because we expected he would be back by now” Aaghaz-e-dosti said.
“We also wanted to reiterate our faith in the state agencies and the judiciary” they added.
They went on to explain that they could not possibly protest Raza’s disappearance as an organisation but that they were all very active on a personal level to do all they could for Raza.
“We worked with Raza in his other initiatives as well have been trying to mobilise support for him and urge the authorities to find him” they concluded.
