Pakistani Journalist Abducted In Islamabad

Islamabad: Matiullah Jan, a well-known freelance journalist, a critic of the military and judicial establishment, who has worked for local and foreign media outlets, was abducted in a car outside a school in the capital, where he had come to see his wife, reported The New Indian Express (TNIE).

He was bundled by uniformed men on Tuesday and taken to an unknown location, his wife was quoted as saying in TNIE.

“There were more than five people, some in civilian clothes, others in black uniforms, who forcibly picked up my husband,” Kaneez Sughra, told AFP in a phone interview, reported TNIE.

The school cameras caught the footage, that shows Jan tossing a mobile phone over the school fence and the school security guard handing it back to a man in uniform, the report said.

Sughra was quoted as saying that her husband had been followed by unknown men in recent weeks. In 2017, an unidentified assailant threw a brick at his car.

Jan was supposed to appear before Pakistan’s top court on Wednesday, where he was facing contempt proceedings over a tweet that was construed as critical of Pakistan’s judges and military.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan called for Jan’s safe release.