Islamabad, 26 March

The Islamabad District and Sessions Court has granted two-day physical custody of journalist Waheed Murad and handed him over to the Federal Investigation Agency. The incident came hours after his family claimed that he was "forcibly" picked up from his house in Islamabad's G-8 area by unknown persons at around 2 pm.

The FIA ​​also told the court that the journalist has been booked under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes (PECA) Act, meant to combat cyber crime, social media and fake news. Murad was associated with an Urdu news website and had previously worked with News One TV and Ausaf Akhbar.

Earlier, his mother-in-law Abida Nawaz said some strangers were claiming to be from the police and were checking whether any Afghan national was living in the house. "When Waheed refused to open the door, they broke the door and took him away," she claimed. Moreover, Abida, in her petition filed with the IHC for his recovery, claimed that the journalist had recently raised voices about the alleged disappearance of two brothers of US-based journalist Ahmed Noorani.

She claimed that Waheed was “forcibly disappeared from Sector G-8 of Islamabad…by unknown officials, possibly belonging to intelligence agencies, and accompanied by people in black uniforms and two police double cabin vehicles.” She described herself as “an eyewitness to the incident of forced disappearance and that the abductors also abused her and snatched her phone.”

Making the Defence Ministry, Islamabad police chief and station house officer of Karachi Company Police as respondents, Abida urged the IHC to “immediately trace and produce” the journalist. She also claimed that the journalist had recently raised voices about the alleged disappearance of two brothers of US-based journalist Ahmed Noorani.

Noorani’s brothers were allegedly “forcibly disappeared” from their Islamabad home. A petition has already been filed in the IHC for his recovery. So far the police or the government has not responded to this disappearance.