Missing people not in US custody, says minister

SLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Sunday the government was clueless about missing people, but claimed that the US had no role in their disappearance.

“I can assure you that missing persons are not in Americans’ custody,” the minister was quoted as saying by relatives of some of the missing people who had met him at the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) headquarters on his invitation.

Mr Malik said he had no information regarding the whereabouts of the missing people and announced Rs5 million reward for information about them, especially about Masood Janjua, Attiqur Rehman and Faisal.

“When we said that these people had either been picked up by Americans or by local intelligence agencies, he said that in his opinion the Americans had nothing do to with the missing persons case,” Amna Janjua, chairperson of the Missing Persons’ Families Association, said.

The families of five men recently picked up in connection with the case of Faisal Shahzad, a US national of Pakistani origin who was arrested in the United States in May for plotting a terrorist attack in New York’s Times Square, were present on the occasion.

Mr Malik told the families of the five men that they were under investigation and its outcome would be made public soon.

He also announced a monthly monetary assistance for the families of missing people, but did not specify the amount.He sought one month’s time and said all possible efforts would be made to find the missing people.

The families expressed dissatisfaction over the assurances given by the minister.

When the families held a demonstration outside the Parliament Lodges on Friday, Mr Malik met them and requested them not to block the way of parliamentarians and the roads in the Red Zone where the Saarc interior ministers’ conference was under way.

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