Mohammad Salman, the chairman-elect of Union Council-8 at Burnes Road, has been reported missing after attending a party protest outside the Karachi Press Club on Friday. Salman, who is also the general secretary of PTI Sindh’s social media wing, left his home in the New Chali neighborhood of Karachi at 4 pm on March 31 to attend the protest, but his phone was off when his brother called him for Iftar.
Salman’s brother filed an FIR at Artillery Maidan Police Station at 3 am on Saturday, alleging that his brother’s disappearance is part of a crackdown on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) activists, as four other social media activists have been taken away from Karachi in recent times.
PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi also alleged on Twitter that four social media workers were “picked up,” while party leader and former speaker Qasim Suri tweeted a photo of Salman and said that “another member of PTI social media team has been illegally abducted.” PTI Secretary General Asad Umar expressed his concern on Twitter, stating that “rampant abductions of citizens are happening on a daily basis,” and that there was a “complete breakdown of law in the country.”
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South Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Syed Asad Raza confirmed that the family had submitted an application and that they were investigating the case. However, Salman’s family plans to file a petition before the Sindh High Court against his alleged abduction.
This is not the first time that a PTI social media figure has gone missing. Azhar Mashwani, another PTI social media figure, was missing for eight days before he returned home safely. When Mashwani was picked up, party chief Imran Khan had said “enough is enough.”
