LIFE IN DANGER

10 January 1999
London time: 4.00 p.m.

SHAKEEL AHMED UMER, MEMBER OF MUTTAHIDA ORGANISING COMMITTEE ARRESTED ALONG WITH HIS WIFE AND OTHER RELATIVES FROM ISLAMABAD

Today, 10 January 1999, at around 2.30 a.m. Pakistan Time, the personnel of Intelligence Bureau and Karachi Police raided the house of the in-laws of Shakeel Ahmed Umer in Islamabad, Federal Capital of Pakistan, and arrested him, his wife, Saima, old mother and father-in-laws, uncle and his brother-in-law. They left his 3 months old child, behind. The infant is constantly screaming and is restless without the mother. Shakeel Ahmed Umer 31, is a member of Muttahida Organising Committee of the MQM, who had gone to Islamabad to attend "Chehlum" (recitation ceremony after 40 days of death) and temporarily staying there along with his family members and close relatives.

The raiding party, while making the arrests, behaved violently, abused the members verbally, physically while dragging them out of the house, eyewitnesses, said. Since the time of their arrest, the family members do not know the whereabouts of Shakeel Ahmed Umer and others and they strongly fear for their lives.