ISLAMABAD: Investigations into Salman Haider’s disappearance so far have revealed that a Toyota Surf vehicle, which is thought to have been following the activist before he went missing, had a fake number plate, police officials said on Friday.
According to them, the vehicle which may have been used by Haider’s abductors was last seen heading towards Rawalpindi from Koral Chowk. “Due to ongoing construction work on the Koral Chowk flyover, only one Safe City camera was able to capture footage of the suspected vehicle as it headed for Rawalpindi,” a police official said.
Police investigators are also analysing Haider’s cellphone record, officials said. “His mobile phone record showed his last location at Kak Pul on Islamabad Expressway,” an official said.
Police say they are investigating the case from various angles but have found no clue yet. “We are working on the case but there is nothing I can tell you at this moment,” another police officer told The Express Tribune.
An investigation team comprising two SPs and a DSP is working on the case. But curiously enough, SP Investigation Muhammad Ilyas, who is heading the investigation team, is on leave till January 17. Police, however, say that the team leader’s absence has not impacted the investigation.
Haider, a lecturer at the Rawalpindi’s Fatima Jinnah Women University and a rights activist, has been missing since the evening of December 6. Before his mobile phone was switched off, he texted his wife and told her that his car was parked near the Korang Town Chowk on Islamabad Expressway. He told his wife to collect the car from there as he was going for some necessary work. Later, his mobile phone was found switched off. An alleged kidnapping case was registered at Lohi Bher police station the next day.
Haider’s brother Zeeshan Haider says though the police have been cooperative with the family they have not come up with anything concrete. “There has been no clear line of action and the cooperation has been limited to assurances only,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 14th, 2017.
Salman Haider’s disappearance won’t silence our voices
In Pakistan, a new generation of activists has emerged from the shadows of 9/11, subsequent wave of wars and atrocities, and the Lawyers’ Movement of 2007.
Progressive in beliefs, liberal in ideas, politically conscious, averse to religious fundamentalism; they are often mocked as ‘liberal fascists’, ‘mombatti mafia’, and ‘anti-state seculars’.
Outnumbered by their opponents, they have managed to keep the debates about modernity, place of religion in the public sphere, role of state in combating terrorism, and widespread misogyny in the society alive on social-media and have significantly influenced public discourse in the last few years.
La poésie est dans la rue – Poetry is in the streets – was a slogan raised by revolutionary students during the May 1968 revolt in Paris. The people of the Subcontinent have always spoken against power, corruption and injustices through poetry, and the gallant tradition of the poem has been passed down to our generation in the same undaunted spirit for which it is famous. Kafir Kafir is one such poem, and it was written by Salman Haider.
Salman Haider is missing since Friday night. He is an academic, a poet, and a human rights activist. Above all, he is a kind soul, restless and perturbed by the state of our society.
He could be heard and read at any occasion. From Shia killings to the APS massacre, from attacks on the Hazara community to the plight of missing persons in Balochistan, he was the voice of the voiceless, the armour of the defenceless. He was a rare voice of resistance marching through the barricades, tearing apart heaps of lies. He expressed the anger, concern, and all the other feelings that made us stand in solidarity with the oppressed.
There is something fundamentally wrong when open incitement to violence is permitted but sane voices are not tolerated. That we had to switch from hashtag #ArrestAbdulAziz to #RecoverSalmanHaider speaks volumes about the resolve of the state to root out terrorism.
That a proscribed group holds rallies in the heart of the capital while an enlightened activist disappears from the same city points to the shortcomings of the government. And this is exactly what Salman Haider was most critical of.
When violence is tolerated and dissent is crushed, rest assured that it’s not the pen but the gun that would write the future.
That a man speaking up for missing persons would himself go missing one day is not that surprising after all.
Truth comes with a heavy price. There might not be many who chose to ignore the dangers, but the ones who do are not only related to each other in heart and mind, but are also joined by their comrades in prisons and torture cells.
When Khurram Zaki shouldered Sabeen Mehmud‘s coffin, he was probably aware that his time wasn’t far away either.
When Salman Haider spoke up for the missing persons, he may have known that that could be viewed as crossing some lines.
Thus he wrote yet another poem that I will not dare translate:
Abhi mere doston ke dost laa-pata ho rahay hein
Phir merey doston ki baari hai
Aur uske baad main
Woh file banun ga
Jisey mera baap adalat le ker jaye ga…
By the time you read these lines, the reasons behind his mysterious disappearance might still be unclear, similar to the countless souls gone missing in recent years. There might still be deliberate confusion as to the real motives of the people who took him away. And if poetry is going to be a crime here, the poem shall resist and fight until the safe return of Salman Haider and others like him.
January 15, 2017 at 5:01 pm
Haider is a great writer and human rights activist. He worked tirelessly for secularism and voiced against religious fundamentalism in the country. Pakistan government must probe the matter and see that the activist is safe